What's In a Name
by R J Slatts
Summary: Sequel to The Lab Rat, what if Crais' parents had another son and hid him from the PK? Would he accept another brother? Can Rainne help him through this crisis? PLEASE READ & REVIEW
1. Prologue

"What's in a name?" Based on the characters of Farscape.  
  
Some Original characters and story by L C McUmber.  
  
Guest appearances by Fanfiction characters from "The Lab Rat"  
  
Sequel to the Lab Rat by R. J. Slatts. Rainne used with Permission.  
  
  
  
  
  
On the very edge of Peacekeeper territories, several small planets orbit a dying star. They have no natural resources to speak of, so are lightly colonized. Intermittent pulses from the star make interstellar communication difficult at best, so even the outlaws seeking to hide find them unsuitable. For Marata Ferrian and her husband Win, it was perfect, so it was home.  
  
They devoted their life to assisting those who sought refuge from the Peacekeeper way of life. Win escaped a command carrier as a teen. Marata never knew her parents or her origins; a Delvian priestess raised her. She valued the harmony the Delvian peoples strove for, and seemed able to achieve. For the Ferrians, selflessness was as natural as breathing. For this reason, when a panic-stricken Sebacean woman came to them in the middle of the night, asking them to please take her infant son, they complied without hesitation. They had recently housed a gypsy woman, perhaps Sebacean/ Khalish, it was hard to tell, - who sought to escape the persecution of her tribal faith leaders. The leaders were not pleased to find the young woman expecting a child without a bonded mate. In their council laws, she was to be executed. She respected her tribal laws, but her love for her unborn child was greater. Marata would never know how she found them, but would come to be deeply pleased that she had.  
  
  
  
Thinking back to the Sebacean woman, Marata remembered the night well. The stellar pulses had given the night sky an odd hue, and she walked out to check on the small garden she cultivated. The blooms were plentiful; they would bring healing to many.  
  
"Help." It was a plea and yet it was fearful, the entreaty of one who had seen much. Marata could not see far into the darkness, so she beckoned to the direction where the weakened cry had originated.  
  
"I will help you, come into the house where it is warm." Her voice was soothing.  
  
"I cannot." Again, the edge of panic.  
  
"Surely you are cold, you sound weary." Marata let her sentence trail, letting her silence coax the woman into speaking. The woman sounded more than weary, she sounded defeated to her very core. Before either woman could speak again, the lusty cry of a newborn split the night. In haste bordering panic, the woman tried to shush the child. He was a robust baby and was not to be satisfied until he was fed.  
  
"Please!" the woman wailed, at Marata or at the child perhaps, "I will not lose this child to the Peacekeepers!"  
  
With that parting, anguished cry she fled. For a microt, the night was silent. Then the infant cries began anew. Marata walked foreword and scooped up the tiny, angry bundle.  
  
"Well, my little one, you have been entrusted to my care. Hear this oath I make, before the essence of your mother dissipates from this garden: You will dedicate your life to the pursuits of peace. The military will not claim you, nor twist your soul for it's dark purpose."  
  
As if he understood her words, he looked solemnly at her face.  
  
"I call you." she began, and then noticed a small amulet at the collar of the wrappings the infant wore. " For my family, you shall be called Ferrian. For your destiny, I call you Ashan, from an old language meaning peaceful healer." She considered the child for a moment. "And when you have finished your eighteenth cycle, I shall reveal your family name. Then you will be known as Ashan Crais Ferrian." 


	2. Ch 1 K'Tahli and Ashan

30 Cycles later "Wake up."  
  
"Go 'way." K'Tahli Ferrian pushed the hand of her husband away, trying to steal another arn under the covers.  
  
"I have to go to the village before I go to the med center. I thought you wished to travel with me?"  
  
"Ashan," she whined, still buried under the soft fleece, "If you keep spreading yourself this thin, you will be exhausted." She flounced the blankets from her face. "You have been so tired I think you would be immune to Heppel Oil."  
  
"C'thha, you know what the village is going through." He addressed his wife with the Sebacean term for beloved one. "They need a healer. They are too remote and can't be reached by Karn." Karn was the healer who usually visited the village, but his body was tiring with his advancing cycles. The mountain region to this village was not an easy journey.  
  
"Besides," he leaned down and kissed the side of her neck, "think of the time and quiet you would have to work on your tele-linkage." She barely heard the actual words, as he was speaking them down the warm hollow of her neck and collarbone.  
  
"My.. hmmmm." he had trailed both hands up her arms to her shoulders and bent to kiss her. Instead of the sweet warmth she expected, he stepped back, taking the blanket with him.  
  
"Hey! Give me that!" Her attempts at blanket retrieval were unsuccessful; she was still a bit dazed from her husband of less than one cycle previous near seduction.  
  
"Please come with me. The journey is cold without you, C'thha."  
  
She looked up and saw the smoldering behind Ashan's eyes. It pleased her heart and the feline ego all females seem to posses that he was as affected by her as she was by him.  
  
"I will come with you." She rose from the bed and pressed her face to his, three times so that their foreheads touched, then both cheeks. The action was a familiar one off affection on their planet, touching the facial tattoos together. Her mother had explained that a Luxan refugee had sat around the fire with them, healing from a poisonous rage that had once consumed him. He spent time with Marata's people, telling of the tattoos and their meanings. Some of the young people adopted a modification of the tradition, and opted for a symbol to bear your name, a symbol to bear your chosen calling, and a central symbol when you chose a life mate.  
  
"While you dress, my lazy" he ducked as a pillow sailed toward his head "I meant, lovely wife.I will contact Mother."  
  
As he knelt on the padded prayer matt in front of the fire to clear his thoughts and contact Marata's mind, she picked up the pillow she had previously tossed at him, preparing to return it to the bed. She noticed the small frown marring the normally serene face of Ashan. Ashan had been able to contact those he had a bond with since he was a small child. He went to study off planet with a Delvian to develop his cerebral gifts and discovered that he had an innate ability to heal. The Delvian teacher had explained that random individuals were possessed of a cellular substance that enabled them to manipulate the body's cells, to heal. He needed to learn, to study to be able to use the talent though. Being a passionate and fierce Sebacean male, he had also chosen the Delvian race to study under to learn self-control. He suspected, somewhere in his past that was so shrouded, there was and would be violence. Marata, although not the flesh that gave him life, was the only mother he knew, so he could most easily link with her mind. This morning, he was finding no response to his gentle entreaties. The frown deepened, sweat that had nothing to do with his proximity to the fire broke out on his brow.  
  
Noting that the life essence was so focused it was nearly glowing, K'Tahli went over and knelt beside Ashan. She could not help him with the link, but she could lend her energies, which were considerable. Ashan had teased her that she had been born during a particularly active solar flare and that had flash burnt her brain. She would be quick to point out that he was less than a cycle old when she was born so he could remember nothing of the sort.  
  
It was unknown if K'Tahli's talents were the result of unusual stellar flares or if K'Tahli herself caused the flares. Even as an infant she seemed to be an amplifier for those around her. Prophecies would be clearer, telekenetics could shift the planetary orbit and healers could return beings from the direst of circumstances.  
  
K'Tahli was the child of the woman who had shown up with child on Marata's doorstep the week before Ashan's arrival. Her mother was adamantly clear that K'Tahli's father was and always would be a mystery. Her mother always got a far away, misty expression when she spoke of K'Tahli's father. As a girl, K'Tahli fantasized about the race of peoples that her father may have come from. As a young girl, she thought of dashing bravery, devilishly handsome peoples. As she grew, she thought more of her own innate talents that may be explained by her paternity.  
  
Her looks gave nothing away, she could have passed for Sebacean with her dark hair, so dark that it seemed to absorb energy. Her mother was part Interion, so K'Tahli's hair, although always a rich raven's black, would reflect colors. The colors would change with her strong feelings. Her eyes were gold, a gleaming warmth that let all who saw her be unable to turn away angry. She had Sebacean strength and Khalish flexibility. For all the intensity in her talent, she had a lightness of spirit, her ability to make light in a situation was the perfect foil for Ashan.  
  
Ashan was serious to the point of formal in public. When he reached his eighteenth cycle, Marata had given him a middle name. In the tiny, unnamed planetary civilization they lived in, no one had middle names. Marata swore him to uphold peace and the saving of lives, all lives. He complied, as was his nature. He was a fierce opponent with a sense of what was right that matched the village holy men. One had to be looking very hard to catch the brief flash of mischief in his dark eyes. He was tall, standing nearly a head taller than his wife. He had the rangy muscular build of a man comfortable with being on the move, from the labors of everyday living. The men of the village trained one another with weaponry to be able to defend their homes.  
  
"I cannot link with mother. Perhaps she sleeps late this day." He said, without much conviction, as Marata was an early riser.  
  
"Perhaps she and Win are." K'Tahli winked.  
  
Ashan's eyes grew wide. "K'Tahli! That is my Mother and Father you are talking about!" Despite his apparent horror at considering his parents recreating, the light moment enabled him to table his worries and continue his preparations for the trip to the village beyond the ridge. He valued the increased healing ability he had when K'Tahli came with him on these visits, but he earlier had spoken truth. He enjoyed the company of his life mate, and was filled with a bittersweet feeling of joy and dread when he considered her. Joy at the life they were building together, dread for the thought of ever losing her. The Peacekeepers seemed to be paying more attention to the ragtag bunch of planets nearby. He continued preparing his pack with an unshakable notion that the next several arns would be pivotal. He could not begin to know how right he was. 


	3. Ch 2 Torture

Captain Braca paced about the hall adjoining the interrogation chamber. There were several such chambers aboard the Command Carrier. In an uncharacteristically impatient move, he entered the chamber. "Progress?" He barked the question, the techie steeled himself not to visibly flinch.  
  
"Very little, Captain. This subject is impervious to the chemicals we have administered so far." The tech turned to monitor the life signs of the listless Interion. Braca scarcely hid his impatience at the tech's incompetence.  
  
"Leave us."  
  
"Sir?" confusion made the tech sound unsure. Captain Braca was a yes man, not given to temper and barked commands like many of the other captains.  
  
"I command you to leave us!" the captain's frustration with the tech was escalating, over a half dead Interion found on planet. The tech could not fathom why this woman had any importance to the Peacekeeper captain, but orders were not his to question.  
  
"As you command." The tech took one last look at the vitals monitor screen. He knew better than to lecture Braca on the vagaries of interrogation, but the cocktail this Interion had in her system, coupled with her injuries on planet, had her hovering closer to the edge of death than safe interrogation allowed. He bowed slightly as he backed from the room.  
  
  
  
The Captain looked at the unfocused gaze of his subject.  
  
"Why did you survive the blast?" he mused, more talking to himself, puzzling things out, than questioning the woman. "Who are you?"  
  
When this Interion was found alive at the blast site of the small band of rebel Sebaceans, something seemed to shift inside Braca. He was a ruthless and intelligent strategist, not given to acting on feeling and notion. Yet the fever pitch in his mind regarding this prisoner was so pervasive it distracted him from his work seeking to locate the crew of Moya.  
  
With a strength more suited to warriors than peace loving peoples, the Interion woman spoke. "I am no one to you. Perhaps 500 cycles ago you and your Peacekeepers would have welcomed my counsel. Now you scoff at me for being useless, a non-warrior. You know nothing of me and for that you will never know how sad that loss is for you." She reached up and laid her palm on his cheek.  
  
He flinched back from the contact, sure she was trying to trick him. Braca, as any Peacekeeper, was unaccustomed to and distrustful of this unselfish, almost maternal affection. For a microt he reeled from an intense longing for something that he never had. Angered at his own reaction as much as the cavalier rejection of his power, he responded "we shall see."  
  
He turned on his heel and strode to the far side of the chamber. From a nearly invisible compartment in the shelving unit, he pulled what looked like a helmet of meshed wire.  
  
"Not as effective as the Aurora chair, but sufficient for you." He spoke as he fit the wires to the head of the woman. Her eyes went wide as the prototypical central core of the aurora project drove into her mind. This prototype had been abandoned because it left the subject dead, and if not, it wiped all useful information clean. Braca did not care. He had been tested to an edge he had long thought his self-control had mastered.  
  
The interrogation drugs must have made the pain even more intense, but the Interion woman was silent. The contortions on her face and the tears for her secrets revealed were her only concession to the deadly invasion of the aurora cap.  
  
Braca was riveted by what he saw on the screen. How had this colony evaded notice so long? Because they were no threat? Gypsies, hybrids, weaklings? Damaged beyond use to the Peacekeepers, they were unwanted. But their numbers had grown and they could be a threat, hiding in the solar flare environment. Braca was trying to convince himself that this raid was mission critical. He would have to convince Grayza.  
  
His attention was returned to the screen by a face, one that seemed hauntingly familiar.  
  
"His name!" he spat the command as he froze the image on the screen.  
  
The woman had taken all she was physically able to take and she could not resist this evil.  
  
"Ashan" she whispered.  
  
Braca felt no response to the name, yet the visage was important.  
  
"His whole name!"  
  
Braca felt the world tilt as the jolt of the name hit. The implications for this colony were much, much larger now. As the Interion woman slid into death, she had whispered the full name of her beloved son in law, "Ashan Crais Ferrian." 


	4. Ch 3 Visions

On Moya Chiana was going about her duties on Moya in a more subdued fashion than her usual. Avoiding the moody Luxan was getting to be a pain and she had a dull headache starting.  
  
"One of these frelling visions would just about make ."she cut herself off realizing she was speaking aloud to no one but herself.  
  
"Chiana?" Pilot asked her.  
  
"What?" she snapped back, with a little more acidity in her tone than intended. The pain was escalating in her head. Her vision swam and she didn't hear whatever pilot was trying to say. She saw someone, familiar but not familiar, on what seemed an impossibly high mountain. He was on his knees, howling in rage and pain. In the space of a microt, his hands clenched and he turned his face to the sky. The hatred that crossed his features was simultaneously fierce and foreign to the man. The woman standing behind him seemed taken aback by this new rage. Her arms came around him, and her eyes seemed to glow in a yellow fire. He slumped, grief given free reign for a span of microts.  
  
  
  
D'Argo found Chiana slumped over where pilot directed him. He lifted her and carried her quickly to Aeryn.  
  
"Moya will help us care for her. D'Argo, please, stand back from the light."  
  
As Aeryn examined Chiana, John came in.  
  
"Hey, she looks pale."  
  
Aeryn scowled at John's misplaced humor. She had known and loved him long enough to know that his use of the sarcastic phrases from home generally covered an emotional reaction to a situation.  
  
"She will be fine. She is coming around now." Aeryn's statement became self evident as Chiana moaned and put her hand to her head.  
  
"Moya gave you something to remove the pain. Can you tell us what happened?" Aeryn asked as she went over to the other side of the cot.  
  
"How should I know? " Chiana quipped back. Aeryn's brows rose, because Chiana was still staring at the spot Aeryn had vacated.  
  
"Chiana?" Aeryn spoke from her present location. Chiana's eyes tracked the sound but were not focused on her face.  
  
"Whoa, what's with the cane and dog act?"  
  
"John, I don't believe she's acting" Came Pilots reply. "Even linked to administer healing, Moya senses no visual stimuli."  
  
"Can you NOT talk like I am not here! I can see.its just this headache is making it blurry. Maybe whatever Moya gave me."  
  
"Yeah officer, it was the Nyquil, which is why I was swerving." Everyone, including the rapidly recovering Chiana, glared at Crichton.  
  
D'Argo, who had kept to himself to this point, spoke up. "This has happened to you before?"  
  
"What makes you say that?" Chiana snapped back, too quickly, "No!"  
  
"Methinks the lady doth protest too much." John quipped.  
  
"Can Moya do something to get rid of the bigger pain?" Chiana asked Pilot, indicating John.  
  
"Answer my question." D'Argo fairly growled, as if the others had not spoken.  
  
The spirit seemed to sag out of Chiana. She was a survivor, she relied on her plucky independence to get her through everything. But the visions were getting to be a little too much. As much as she hated to give credence to the crew, they had become important and if she had to risk asking for help, this seemed like a good time to do it. It wasn't like she was agreeing to settle on a farm with D'Argo on some planet.  
  
"You are right. I get these visions." She began  
  
"I see dead people." John stage whispered.  
  
"Crichton!" they hissed in unison.  
  
" They leave me blind, sick and I have no idea what they mean."  
  
"What did you see?"  
  
"A man. Sebacean I think, but with tattoos, almost Luxan, on his face. He looked like someone I knew, I can't place the face."  
  
John snorted but wisely held comment to himself. Chiana was known for having passing acquaintance with a great number of males.  
  
"He was angry, and is bent on revenge. In the vision , he saw me too. That has never happened." she trailed the last off, as if she was just realizing the last part. She blinked. Her vision was slowly returning.  
  
"This one was not as bad as some of the others." She added, quietly.  
  
"Are the visions predecessors to anything bad happening?" Aeryn asked.  
  
Chiana had the grace to look sheepish.  
  
"Well, yeah. They usually happen when the Peacekeepers are getting close"  
  
"Great!" John threw his hands up in disgust. "Our own psychic friends' network and you never told us!"  
  
"Back off!" Chiana sat up and faced John off.  
  
"Well," Pilot stepped in "I see you are feeling better , more yourself. Let us scan the area and prepare for possible Peacekeeper activity."  
  
  
  
On the unnamed planet:  
  
Ashan and K'Tahli worked silently, side by side in the village. The trip up the mountainside had been peaceful. The seasonal changes were unpredictable on their world due to the unstable orbit of their sun. Today the cool air contributed to the tranquility of the journey. K'Tahli worked to concentrate on her thoughts. As a child, she was able to travel from place to place by thinking about the place. It was disconcerting for her mother, but natural for K'Tahli. As she grew into a young woman, the ability seemed to fade. One winter, after a harsh bout of fever that ravaged the whole community, the ability had gone. She looked over at the back of her life mate. She smiled at the memory. The fever and the pain it caused had been intense, but it was a time of discovery as well. Ashan, a restless young man of 20 cycles, discovered two things on that day. The first, he was a natural healer. When his best friend, K'Tahli, lay helpless, he placed his hands on either side of her face. They both seemed to resonate for the span of several microts, and she was well again. He had felt the fever and pain leaving her, cell by cell it seemed. It was also at that microt he would be bonded to her for life.  
  
When the last of the villagers had been attended to, they started back down the mountain.  
  
  
  
It is unclear what she saw first, the anguished fall of her mate or the flash of phase disruption in the distance. She ran to Ashan.  
  
"Did you feel that?" He ground out, through clenched teeth.  
  
He was on the ground. It seemed a disjointed picture, a large and powerful man, trembling like a child on his knees. K'Tahli has felt something, but had instinctively ducked her feelings inside her, fearing her natural amplification would be detrimental.  
  
"I saw the flash." Her words trailed off as she realized the direction of the residual light.  
  
"Not the community? Mother? Marata? Win?" The enormity of the sudden deaths of everyone she held dear was mind numbing. Ashan let out a raging howl, encompassing the rage and pain of not only himself, but also the people who had so recently been snuffed out.  
  
"Who could do such a thing?" K'Tahli asked, stunned, to no one specific. Having studied on several different planets and centers, they both knew of the violent and cruel natures of the many warring races. They were not ignorant of violence, they just chose not to be violent. For Ashan, it was a promise to a mother he knew only in his dreams. For K'Tahli, it was self preservation. The wonderful freedom of a mixed and not fully revealed heritage came with the price of never being sure of one's hereditary weaknesses. What if she had some Luxan rage? Delvian madness? Moments like these tested the limits of her spirit and control.  
  
An eerie change in expression crossed over Ashan's features. He was searching his mind for someone, something that might have reason to do this, someone to whom he could direct the rage building inside him. He looked cold, hard. He seemed to see something in his minds eye.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
He had seen something, but felt uncertain enough about it's origin to share it. Who was the Nebari woman he'd just seen? Where was she? What did she have to do with the deaths of his family?  
  
The thought of his family brought a fresh wave of pain. K'Tahli knelt beside him, held him. She opened herself up to the pain and rage he felt, the pain of those killed. The flux was dizzying, but it enabled her, gave her the power to transport the two of them to the site where their community once quietly prospered. 


	5. Ch 4 Nightmare

On Talyn The thunder woke Rainne from her reverie. She opened her eyes and looked around. She was in unfamiliar surroundings. A flash of lightening illuminated the room. The table from Crais' quarters was in the center of the room but she was no longer on Talyn. Rainne pulled the blanket closer. She looked beside her on the bed, Crais was not next to her. She closed her eyes and called out to him through her bond with Talyn. She received no reply. It was then she realized that even Talyn was gone from her. Another flash of lightening revealed an open door she had not seen before. Rainne got up from the bed, wrapping her nude form in the blanket. She walked toward the door, it felt as if something was drawing her out. She looked up the sky was dark, the clouds so purple they were almost black and seemed to capture any color and suck it in. As she reached the door, a blast of cool wind seemed to attempt to pull the blanket from her. She grasped it with both hands. She looked down as she stepped out onto a cold piece of rock. Something seemed to be burning in the distance. She could smell the residual chakran oil from Peace Keeper pulse rifles. She flinched when the lightening struck the rock above her head. Rainne turned to see she was in a small canyon, it was then she heard wailing. She turned toward the noise and saw two figures standing with their backs to her. Their black hair fluttered in the wind. She moved toward them. She tried to call to them but no sound emerged. The wailing was getting louder, the lightening flashed again. The figures turned toward her. They were struggling with each other, each grasping the other by the throat and screaming. The lightening flashed again and she could begin to make out their features, it was Crais and he was fighting with himself. Another blast of cold air knocked her to the ground and ripped the blanket from her grasp. She felt her head strike something before the blackness overcame her.  
  
Rainne awoke to Crais gently rocking her. He was holding her shivering form in his lap.  
  
"Bialar?" she whispered. Her throat was hoarse.  
  
"C'thha." He said into the top of her head as he kissed her hair. "What happened?"  
  
"I don't know. A dream, a nightmare." her voice trailed off. It had been months since she had had a nightmare. The emotions in the dream and the memory of Crais in a death match with himself were too much, silent tears began to stream down her face.  
  
"Tell me." He said.  
  
She tried to explain what she had seen in the dream, but the imagery was unclear even to her, so it was difficult to explain. He held her, listened. The shivering abated, and she returned to a restless sleep. He continued to hold her, wondering if he should give the strange dream any credence. 


	6. Ch 4 cont Need for Revenge

The unnamed Planet They stepped carefully, unsure of what they would find. The debris held residual signatures of the people who had lived there, but also another dark signature.  
  
"Peacekeepers?" K'Tahli asked. Ashan nodded, still not trusting himself to speak, not even directly to her mind.  
  
"Why here? There was no connection, no reason to come here, was there?"  
  
Ashan looked even more troubled than the previous moment.  
  
"Sit, C'thha." He took her hand and they sat on the cold rock. "My mother was afraid that I would be taken by the Peacekeepers. That is why she brought me to Marata to raise. I have dreamt of the Peacekeepers, and my family. Marata always suspected I was not an only child, and perhaps my siblings may have been killed. Perhaps somehow that led them here."  
  
"That gives them no reason to wipe out an entire community? Are they that ruthless?"  
  
"They are." He replied, the knowledge heavy on his thoughts. K'Tahli had studied ancient peoples, ancestries and the races that developed higher cranial functions. Violence to her was a fable, a story handed down. In training as a healer, Ashan had seen the results of violence on the body, each race's physiology reacting differently.  
  
They sat together for the better part of the arn, as the light faded. Lost in their own thoughts they did not see the Peacekeeper landing party.  
  
Suddenly K'Tahli stiffened, gasped. For a moment, she had felt her mother's mind reach out to her. Her mother was in agony. Then she was gone.  
  
"Ashan! She wasn't killed here! They took her." K'Tahli was sobbing, a broken sound.  
  
"Shh. Tell me?" He held her face in his hands.  
  
"She said your name.to a man in Peacekeeper garb. He smiled." K'Tahli trembled, her anguish was total. "Your whole name. Then she died." K'Tahli collapsed into his arms. He held and rocked her. The people they loved, killed. His parents, her mother. For once in his life, Ashan wanted desperately to kill someone in retaliation. But now, he mourned his losses with the one good thing he had left, K'Tahli.  
  
  
  
Captain Braca saw the pair seated in the dirt, heads low. Their mourning gave him a moment to study Ashan. The resemblance was uncanny. Braca felt a rush of satisfaction that was almost sexual as he thought of telling Bialar Crais he had another brother.then telling him he had crushed the life from him single-handedly. Always the strategist, Braca thought back to the sibling ties he had witnessed in his career, and the lengths Bialar had gone to for Tauvo. Planning a brilliant scheme to have both brothers' dead and his place in Command secured, Captain Braca walked forward.  
  
  
  
Seeing the movement, K'Tahli and Ashan both turned and looked at the uniformed man striding toward them. Ashan disregarded the weapon in the man's hand and charged. He rammed his shoulder into the Peacekeepers midsection, knocking him to the dirt.  
  
Braca controlled his irritation at this change of plan but used it to his advantage.  
  
"Wait!" he scrambled to his feet, "I am not your enemy!"  
  
"Words belied by the weapon in your hand!" K'Tahli spat at him.  
  
He dismissed K'Tahli as unimportant. A fatal mistake, he would later realize. In her grief, she did not recognized him as the man her mother looked upon, moments before her death.  
  
"My landing party was ambushed. We were told that there was an injured member of our crew here. That someone had found a way to heal a damaged Sebacean who suffered living death. When we came to retrieve him, we were attacked."  
  
"Why were you spared?" Ashan was not suspicious, he did not have enough first hand experience with Peacekeepers to be wary of the treachery.  
  
" I had returned to the transport for a gift , to try and persuade the healers to share this knowledge with us. The phase flash rendered me unconscious."  
  
"Who did this? Did you know them?"  
  
Braca hid the evil smile that formed in his mind as the naïve couple fell for his ruse.  
  
"Yes. A rogue band of escaped criminals. Among them is an officer who has been contaminated and has committed heinous acts. He must be stopped. He has a leviathan of ours and has evaded capture. As you can see," he waved his hand to indicate the destruction surrounding them, "he will stop at nothing to evade us."  
  
"I will find him, I will avenge their deaths myself." Ashan declared, with an extremely familial finality .  
  
  
  
"Ashan! You cannot mean that!" K'Tahli unknowingly confirmed the captain's assumption by speaking his name. Ashan was stronger than she, more familiar with warring peoples, but he had never spoken a desire to kill.  
  
He turned to her and placed his forehead to hers. The tingling as the two unity marks was tainted slightly, by the rage in his heart.  
  
" I have to find this band, stop them, C'thha. I could not continue to live if I do not."  
  
"You are a sworn healer!"  
  
"This is healing of a sort, cleansing an evil."  
  
"I will come with you!"  
  
"No!" He replied quickly, wincing at the hurt look that was quickly replaced by a determination in her face he had seen too often "I must go alone."  
  
The healer in him was sensing the malevolent waves emanating off the unassuming Braca. He was beginning to suspect something was not as it seemed. Determined not to alert his mate or this unstable captain, Ashan said to K'Tahli. "Go to your teacher's home, she will give you peace. I will join you when they are dead." He turned to the Peacekeeper. "You tell your command I go alone. Do not track me, I will find you and bring evidentiary report of the rogue band's death."  
  
Braca saw the born command taking over Ashan's features as he readied himself to leave. The captain found himself almost relieved this man had not been in the ranks, for he may have been a formidable barricade to Braca's promotions. The captain had no intention of honoring his request, but for the sake of the deception he complied.  
  
The unlikely trio walked over to the Captain's transport.  
  
"Will you require a ship?"  
  
"No, Captain. I will secure transportation for myself and my mate."  
  
Braca made no comment to the strange man knowing his rank. Men of ego generally underestimated the architects of their eventual downfall. Braca was no exception.  
  
Braca took off back to the command carrier. 


	7. Ch 5 The Twins

"Ashan, I am confused. What teacher do you want me to stay with?" He folded her into his embrace, inhaled the scent of her hair. He would miss her on this journey. "There is much more here than we are being told. The Peacekeeper is lying. He wants me to lead him to these people. What I do not understand is why he thinks I am able to do this? Is the Nebari woman in my vision part of this renegade crew? The essence at the scene of the murders was all Sebacean, no others."  
  
"I see.you think if you do not lead him to these people as he commands, we will both be in danger. You want me to hide away from any of the place that I studied, so that no one can tell them how to find me."  
  
Ashan smiled at the wisdom of his young wife. He underestimated her too sometimes. "Yes, C'thha, that is my plan."  
  
"But how will we travel?"  
  
"Denali and Ranjaa."  
  
"The twins? But they are free! We have not seen them for cycles! They would not return after this long exploring!"  
  
Denali and Ranjaa were a rarity. Twin Leviathan ships, smaller than conventional ships. Unable to support a large enough crew to be used as transports, they had been set free to explore. Even the pilots were not pilots. The pilot was a symbiotic life force that had no form, it traveled in the circulation system of the small leviathans.  
  
Their differences made them wary of rejection by other leviathans. Ashan and K'Tahli had used their combined talents to heal the burgeoning insanity in the twins, caused by Peacekeeper cruelty. Denali and Ranjaa had promised them if they called out in need, they would return. But that had been over twelve cycles ago.  
  
"We can call them. It is our best option. A conventional transport is too easy to track. With the weaponry aboard, conventional transport ships are more apt to attract attention."  
  
"Why can't I come with you?"  
  
Ashan set her back from him so he could look at her as he spoke. " If the Captain had told any truth at all, and they are responsible for these deaths, I will execute them all. I do not want to have you see that side of me. I do not wish to be party to the fracture our bond would suffer if you had to witness such a thing." He paused to sigh, drained from the day's events. He put his fingertips on her lips as she began to speak. "No, C'thha. I must. Ranjaa will be able to track Denali, so you will never be alone or unable to find me. Trust, my C'thha. You must trust me."  
  
  
  
In the uncharted territories  
  
The two small leviathans never attracted much notice, exploring space at will. The pilots were a race of formless beings, ethereal, not visible to most races. They were not confined to a chamber, but flowed through the atmospheric and circulatory systems of the host ship. The primary communication was telepathy with the ship and its occupants. For the most part, they did not take on passengers. Denali, slightly larger and stronger than his twin, first sensed the presence in his mind of the Sebacean and his mate.  
  
"Denali? Pilot? Please respond!"  
  
The pilot contacted Ranjaa and the two pilots linked their minds. Now they could clearly sense both K'Tahli and Ashan.  
  
"We need your help. We would not ask if it were not urgent."  
  
The message was now unmistakably clear. There was never a thought of hesitation or refusal of this request. Both crafts maneuvered to a familiar linear position, and geared up for another rarity. A tandem starburst. Denali powered up first, Ranjaa close behind. At the last moment, Ranjaa inverted her position so the twins were belly to belly, a perfect teardrop curve. Before the radiance of starburst split the darkness, the pilots responded to the plea.  
  
"Be still, friends, we shall arrive with due haste".  
  
  
  
Ashan and K'Tahli both opened their eyes and saw the relief that mirrored their own in each other.  
  
"You will do as I ask?" Ashan asked as he studied her face.  
  
"I hate this!" K'Tahli answered back, turning her back on him.  
  
He put his hands on her shoulders. He could feel the trembling, but not discern if it were fatigue, fury or concern that caused it.  
  
"K'Tahli. I must go. You know this and you know why."  
  
She wanted to scream at him, yell at his selfishness for leaving her behind. She knew it was not selfishness that motivated him but the need to vent her feelings fell to Ashan.  
  
"Then go." She said, without turning. She tensed and her voice was ice.  
  
"K'Tahli." he began.  
  
She whirled on him "GO!" she screamed. "You made your decision, big man HAS to go KILL something!!!"  
  
"That is not fair." He began, irritation at her attack beginning to fray his calm.  
  
"Neither is your leaving!" she spat back to him.  
  
He took a few pacing steps away from her and raked his hand through the top of his hair.  
  
His jaw flexed as he ground his teeth to keep from losing his temper.  
  
"I refuse to fight when you are being this unreasonable."  
  
The fight went out of her as the strain of the entire situation showed in the hollow defeat of his voice.  
  
With a choked sob she turned and ran back to him. She held him tight, not trusting herself to speak. The years she spent training, studying, apprenticing self-control were abandoning her now. All of the wise teachers and priestesses could tell her how to shield and develop her mental abilities, but none of the training prepared her for the chaos her emotions were in now.  
  
"Shhh." He held her, stroked her hair. He took in the scent of her with each breath. Somehow in the middle of death, the clean scent of the mountains clung to her. The sweet and spicy mix that was unique to her was still there. His arms tightened reflexively as his mind raced ahead to being without her, not being there to protect her. He knew that she was not a weak woman, and would scoff at his desire to protect.  
  
"Let us find shelter for the night, we will wait for the twins at daybreak."  
  
She nodded her assent. They made a camp in the low caves near the base of the mountains. Though weary to their very cores, their need for each other was more intense than ever. They needed to chase away the death and the uncertainty. 


	8. Ch 6 Dreams

On Moya, Chiana was not sleeping well. She seemed to be having a most erotic dream, and was not quiet about it. Finally, D'Argo could take no more. He growled and rose from his own bed. At Chiana's door, he raised his fist to pound on the chamber entrance. Before he could pound on the door, the noise stopped. He waited a moment, not wanting to get caught outside her door after all of the racket Chiana was broadcasting, not did he want to come face to face with the source of the noise.  
  
The moment of decision was taken from him when Chiana yanked the door open.  
  
"What are you doing here?" She asked.  
  
He tried too look past her into the chamber. She was alone.  
  
"Where are you going?" He growled.  
  
"I need a drink. I can't sleep. Dreams."  
  
"Yes, we all could hear the dreams." D'Argo replied with a very Crichton like dose of sarcasm. Chiana smiled and got a jab in at D'Argo.  
  
"I think mine was of Crais."  
  
D'Argo's reaction was briefly stunned, then feral. His growl made Chiana step back, her bravado gone.  
  
"I am sorry, Ka D'Argo. That was not kind," she gave an impish half grin "even for me."  
  
"Why did you say you 'think' it was Crais?" D'Argo asked. His mind was going back to Chiana's visions.  
  
" He had dark hair, long. Whoever she was, she had her hands wrapped in his hair and her legs wrapped around ."  
  
"ENOUGH!" D'Argo cut off her sentence.  
  
"All I could see was his back." She tossed off another little grin. She was enjoying teasing D'Argo. Although the man in the dream had closely resembled Crais, she had no idea who the people in her dream were, but the passion had been unmistakable. It left Chiana feeling a little . unfinished.  
  
She didn't notice the puzzlement come over D'Argo's features.  
  
"What do you mean, Whoever SHE was?" He asked roughly.  
  
"It wasn't Rainne, if that is what you are asking me. It was some lady with black hair, gold eyes."  
  
"That bastard!" D'Argo ground out. Chiana, the ever-vigilant self- preservationist, felt a pang of jealousy at the depth of obvious feeling D'Argo still carried for Rainne. Rainne had chosen Crais over him but still he mooned over her. Chiana flounced off, disgusted with him, and with herself for caring.  
  
"Go back to bed. I'll try and be more quiet when I have recreational dreams." She spoke the parting shot over her shoulder.  
  
D'Argo fumed as he returned to his quarters. Where was Talyn now? Did they stop at a commerce planet? What could an ex-Peacekeeper know about fidelity?  
  
He returned to quarters but it was several arns before he could sleep again.  
  
  
  
Braca paced in his chambers. His dream of finally having the respect needed to take on a command was so very close. He needed to monitor the young Sebacean, he had to lead him to Crais and the others. This planet was almost entirely peopled by misfits, half-breeds. Braca wrinkled his nose in distaste. Despite the lack of bloodline purity, there seemed to be a great number of telepathics. If anyone could find Bialar Crais when he did not want to be found, it was a family member with a telepathic ability.  
  
Because he was watching so intently, he noticed the twin tiny leviathans and the transport vessel that they docked to. It had to be the Sebacean and his woman. Using a leviathan was a smart move, and Braca felt a fissure of fear. They were not easy to track, and the small freak leviathans might be harder still.  
  
He strode out to the hangar area, looking around for the right craft to take. A prowler would be ideal, small but not armed to take on an adolescent leviathan gunship like Crais'. The marauder would be better, but stealth would be difficult.  
  
Braca, being a coward by nature, chose the marauder. If he could just get in close to the underside of the leviathan, he could follow in the starburst, if those tiny ships could accomplish such an act. He boarded the marauder and took off. 


	9. Ch 7 Denali

Ashan and K'Tahli embraced at the transport dock and boarded the twins. The interiors were a warm aqua green color, a flickering almost hypnotic light. They settled in and took a few moments to communicate with the pilots and the ships. They took a few moments to explain the situation, and communicate their appreciation. "You brought us back to the stars from the brink of madness at the hands of the Peacekeepers. We consider it an honor to take you where you need to go."  
  
"It could be dangerous."  
  
"Life is dangerous, friends. Choosing to ignore friends because of risk is lethal to our very being." The twins replied.  
  
"Open your minds to show us who you are seeking, and we will direct our energies there." The pilots instructed.  
  
Ashan closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind. His concern for K'Tahli made it difficult, but the symbiotic pilot seemed able to empathize and filter through to the story of the renegades on the prison ship. Denali swung around and went into starburst in search of the only renegades he knew of-Moya.  
  
  
  
Ranjaa, the smaller twin leviathan, was trying to soothe her new occupant. The pilot had found some soothing music, an airy piece from the Delvians. K'Tahli had watched on the view screen as Ashan and Denali went into starburst. She felt like part of her self was torn away. It was not like the years they spent on their educations, going from planet to planet. They always spent a season home each cycle, and they always knew where the other was.  
  
Something on the view screen caught her eye.  
  
"Pilot? Can you tell me what that dark object right behind Denali was?" she asked aloud.  
  
"It looks like a Peacekeeper ship, possibly marauder class."  
  
"Where is it now? Can you track its energy signature?"  
  
"It seems to be no longer in range."  
  
"How can that be? They don't have a hyper speed capability in a ship that size?" In her fear, she had not spoken the words aloud. The pilot and Ranjaa seemed pleased that their occupant had adapted to communications so quickly.  
  
"The ship must have stayed tight to Denali and followed him through starburst."  
  
"Does Denali know?"  
  
"He says he sensed something, but after coming out of starburst, his sensors did not pick up the marauder. Perhaps the intense flare activities from your home world and starburst have reduced the effectiveness of his scans?" The pilot offered.  
  
"Is Ashan safe?"  
  
"He seems fine." The pilot assured her.  
  
"Can we follow them?" She asked, returning to speech. Worry was making her concentration fluctuate.  
  
"Starburst is not a specifically targeted directional travel." Pilot responded, "But Ranjaa and Denali are twins, and have had many cycles to copy each other's starburst patterns. We can get very close."  
  
K'Tahli leaned her head back and closed her eyes. As the energy built around her, she felt a moment of weightlessness as Ranjaa starburst after her brother.  
  
  
  
Ashan and Denali came out of starburst and the pilot immediately began scanning the area. Denali allowed himself a moment of pride as they realized Moya was close by. The sensors also indicated a smaller, Peacekeeper vessel nearby. As quickly as the sensor scan picked up the reading, it was gone again.  
  
"Keep scanning, pilot." Ashan instructed.  
  
"Whatever it was, Sir, may have damaged our propulsions by the increased drag. We are unable to move."  
  
"I will come down to the propulsions area and see if there is anything I can do." Ashan was not sure if his training as a healer or in mechanical systems would come into play, but either way he had to try.  
  
  
  
"I am telling you, there was a marauder on the scans just a microt ago!" D'Argo bellowed.  
  
John glared at D'Argo.  
  
"Did you get up on the wrong side of the qualta this morning?"  
  
" I am not hallucinating. Pilot!"  
  
Pilot's image flickered into visibility.  
  
"He is correct Crichton. But there is no Marauder in the scans now."  
  
"Where did it come from? Or go to, that fast?" John asked Pilot.  
  
"Unknown Crichton. Moya is detecting another leviathan. It seems injured."  
  
"Talyn?" Aeryn asked, concern obvious in her voice. John glanced at her sideways.  
  
Aeryn glared back with a look that told him this was NOT the time for petty jealousy. John never seemed to get past Aeryn's affection for Talyn without wondering how far that affection translated to Crais.  
  
"No. It is a very small ship, smaller than Talyn. Moya thinks it is one of the twins."  
  
"Wonder-twin powers, Activate!" John held his arm in the air "Form of.. a Marauder!!" John grinned at his own humor. No one in command shared his mirth. "Guess you had to be there."  
  
"The twins? I thought the Peacekeepers had destroyed them because they were unsuitably small?" Aeryn queried pilot.  
  
"Moya assures me they were set free. The Peacekeepers were certain that they would die on their own, pilotless and insane."  
  
"But there's one out there, knocking on our door?" John asked.  
  
"Moya is unable to communicate with him, but she assures me he is alive."  
  
"He runty enough to net him in?" John asked  
  
"What if it is a trap?" D'Argo countered, facing off to John.  
  
"What? An army of Lilliputians?" John mocked.  
  
"I am unfamiliar with the race you mention, Crichton, but no less this could be Peacekeeper treachery."  
  
"I must admit I share D'Argo's concerns." Aeryn spoke up. " Pilot net the ship and bring it in. Send DRD's to scan for life forms. We will go to the cargo bay."  
  
"As you wish." Pilot sent out the net and pulled in the small ship.  
  
  
  
On Denali, Ashan felt the pull of the larger leviathan net.  
  
"Pilot? What is that?"  
  
"Moya is pulling us into her cargo bay. Your healing has helped Denali but he was unable to communicate no more than we mean them no harm."  
  
"Denali is a bit more complex than my usual patients." Ashan apologized.  
  
"We understand, and are grateful for the care already administered."  
  
"You know this ship? Do you know its crew?"  
  
"This is Moya. Escaped prisoners freed her from her control collar. We chanced coming here first, although in your mind the Peacekeeper that had defected was a Sebacean male. This crew's Sebacean is a female. I do suggest caution regardless."  
  
"So noted." Ashan looked over the crew list pilot provided. The Nebari was a surprise, he thought back to his vision. There are many Nebari in the uncharted territories, it could be coincidence. He did not believe in coincidence.  
  
"Pilot? There is an entry here I do not understand?"  
  
"The human male? We are unfamiliar with this race as well. Again, we urge caution."  
  
"Thank you. Can you contact Ranjaa and K'Tahli from inside here? Let me know they made it to Delvia?"  
  
"Once you step out onto Moya, we must contact you through her pilot. But as soon as we know, we will send word."  
  
Ashan fastened the front of his flight gear, gathered his hair into a strap at the back of his neck. Whether the grooming was nervousness or leftover fastidiousness, he was unconsciously accenting a resemblance to a less than welcome individual.  
  
He hopped out of the small ship onto a massive hangar deck. The DRD's studied him, looking for weapons. Finding none, they reported to Moya and scuttled away to their previous tasks. He had spent a year studying leviathans, but this one was unusually beautiful. Or it was, until he stepped around the front of Denali and was faced with the business end of a vast assortment of weaponry.  
  
"That is far enough buster." John said.  
  
Ashan halted, and slowly placed his hands in front of him, palms up.  
  
"Name, Rank and Regiment!" Aeryn demanded. The guttural tone she always adopted when she flashed back to Peacekeeper mode made Crichton take a second look at their visitor. He kind of did look very much like a PK. He looked very much like a certain nasty, moody PK. John shifted uneasily.  
  
"I am not a Peacekeeper." He stated. The voice was low, confident, but did not hold the arrogance borne of command. " My name is Ferrian. Ashan Ferrian. I am a healer."  
  
"Long way from home, aren't you? Did the little maps on your face tell you to make the left at Albuquerque?" John quipped.  
  
"These?" He put his fingertips to his cheeks and forehead. The hand motion caused an immediate advancement of readiness on the weapons. He slowly put his hands back down. "They are personal markings, somewhat like the Luxan's here." He nodded toward D'Argo. D'Argo growled at being singled out.  
  
"He looks like." D'Argo growled but didn't want to say the name that was on everyone's mind.  
  
"Tall, dark and twisted." John finished for him.  
  
Aeryn frowned. From her PK days she was used to rows upon rows of Sebacean men in flight uniform with hair pulled back, so the resemblance that John and D'Argo were arguing about was lost on her.  
  
"What is your mission?" She again demanded from Ashan.  
  
"In due time I will speak to your interrogation. May I query your ship's Pilot for word on my wife's transport? I am waiting for confirmation she made it to Delvia safely."  
  
"Moya has spoken with Denali, and Denali says they did not go to Delvia."  
  
"Then where are they?" He clenched his fists at his side. D'Argo tensed at the aggression in his tone, but John grinned.  
  
"Can't keep your woman in line either? Join the club, pal. " John said, earning him a long suffering look from Aeryn. John had sized up the newcomer in his mind and he felt no threat from him.  
  
Pilot broke back in.  
  
"Moya claims the other twin carrying your mate has come out of starburst not far from our location. She is in communication with Moya's son, Talyn."  
  
Despite pilot's assurances that she was safe, Ashan noted the shift in expressions when the leviathan's son was mentioned. As a healer, he was attuned to such shifts. The animosity was not openly expressed, but was there. Even the unknown species male was slightly concerned. Ashan felt at that point, this jokester, if he was sane, was his only real ally.  
  
"I am here to avenge my family's murder." He began. A ripple of unease went through the group. "I was told that they were killed by an escaped band of prisoners aboard a leviathan." He went on to explain the PK captain's story, and his own distrust of him.  
  
He searched their faces as he spoke. This group was part of whom he sought, but he sensed no duplicity in them. But he also sensed that they knew the Sebacean male he sought.  
  
"So now that filthy Peacekeeper is taking Talyn and Rainne on killing sprees?" D'Argo was the first to speak.  
  
"D'Argo, calm down." Aeryn put her hand on D'Argo's arm. The memory of Luxan Hyper rage was fresh, and she knew he had a strong reason to believe the worst of Crais.  
  
"He's a nut, but wiping out a whole community is a bit much for the new and improved Crais." John said, as much to D'Argo as to the group.  
  
Something that John had said seemed to click with Ashan, but the memory eluded him  
  
"He is a former Peacekeeper. During his pursuit he was irrevocably contaminated, forced to abandon the Peacekeepers." Aeryn began. "He has found a mate, and seems to have seen the evil of his training. He was conscripted at near ten cycles, so perhaps his memories of his life and his family have helped him change." Her explanation made sense, but she spoke it without the ring of personal conviction. Ashan had no way of knowing that was because she had never known the family life as the other former PK had known.  
  
"So he could still be capable of such violence." D'Argo felt he needed to reiterate.  
  
  
  
Braca observed the leviathan, watched it pull in the ship. Taking a look at his sensors, he saw Talyn approaching. Not wanting to take on both crews together, he set off to intercept the Gunship. 


	10. Ch 8 Ranjaa

K'Tahli nearly fainted when the small ship came out of starburst. She felt no real sensation of travel, but what she felt was indescribable. Next time, she would release the psychic link before they went into the burst. "Madam, there is another ship nearby." The pilot told her. "Status?" She asked, aloud, still a little shaken by the starburst.  
  
"There are two ships," the pilot amended "a Peacekeeper vessel and a leviathan. The leviathan is aware we are here but the other ship is gearing for attack on the leviathan."  
  
"Where are Ashan and Denali?"  
  
"Safe aboard another leviathan, not far from our current position. Denali confirms that a PK marauder followed them through starburst. The resulting drain on Denali rendered them in need of aid, but they are unharmed."  
  
K'Tahli sat back, relieved. Now all she had to worry about was Ashan being angry. Wouldn't be the first time she'd made him angry.  
  
  
  
Aboard Talyn, Crais assumed a defiant stance in Talyn's neural cluster. The marauder's guns were trained on the gunship, but Crais asked Talyn to hold fire.  
  
"Let us see who dares attack us here, alone." Crais opened a communication channel to the Marauder.  
  
"Bialar Crais." Braca smiled at the view screen. His ploy had worked better than he had even imagined.  
  
"Surrender your vessel, and the female human!" Braca barely held his glee in check as he ordered the former Captain to surrender the things he held most dear..  
  
"Never!" Crais spat back. His eyes flashed with a hint of the old ruthlessness as he gave Talyn the command to fire. As Talyn prepared to open fire, the Marauder burst out a pulse that clipped Talyn. Talyn's shot went wild. Crais was thrown to the floor, stunned by the burst. He slumped unconscious at the far corner of the neural cluster.  
  
On the lower deck, the sudden firefight and loss of connection to Talyn and Crais sent Rainne running toward command. Calling to Talyn and Crais both, she was rapidly panicking by the lack of response. More than that, she was only faintly aware of Talyn, and not of Crais at all. Crais' bond with Talyn had allowed Crais to grow on a path of self-discovery that had been very telling, very satisfying. Helping the young leviathan come to terms with his vast ability to kill and destroy without losing his respect for life had come a long way in healing the damage done by his Peacekeeper existence. What if that was the meaning behind her dream? Rainne's thoughts quickened her pace until she was sprinting on the unstable floor.  
  
  
  
K'Tahli and the smaller twin saw the glancing blow and the erratic behavior of the stunned leviathan. Seeking to distract the Marauder, Ranjaa flew directly between the two ships.  
  
Talyn, despite his sudden lack of communication ability, fired again on the Marauder. Braca had let down his guard at that moment, thinking victory was assured. He fired off one last shot before his ship was blasted into an inferno. Microts later, it exploded. Talyn was frightened now, he could hear Moya calling, coming to him. He could not respond, he could not contact the captain. He could feel the panic coming off Rainne in hot waves. He tried to call her into the cluster, but he was unable to make her hear him. A peripheral sensor caught the smaller leviathan. In Talyn's panicked state, he thought the marauder had returned. He was able to fire once more. Unknowingly, Talyn blasted Ranjaa to her death.  
  
  
  
On Moya, Ashan was allowed up in command with the crew, despite vehement objections by D'Argo.  
  
"We can't spare anyone to watch him. Moya is accelerating toward Talyn." Aeryn explained.  
  
Pilot further explained "Moya is concerned for Talyn. He had lost contact with the Captain and Rainne. He was being fired on by a Peacekeeper Marauder."  
  
"The one that you suspected trailed your starburst." D'Argo's anger simmered close to the surface. "How do we know it was not planned that way?"  
  
Ashan showed none of his trepidation at the advancing Luxan.  
  
"You must trust my word." Was Ashan's reply.  
  
Pilot opened a view screen and the flashes of the distant battle captured the crew's attention. The explosion of the Marauder brought a cheer that was cut short by the second shot that destroyed Ranjaa. No one was able to respond to the enormity of what had transpired. Even John had no smart remark. Ashan started to take a step toward the view screen, his hand outstretched as if he could prove the image was not real.  
  
Pilot's voice confirmed that the small craft had indeed been killed. Ashan barely heard Pilot calling out to someone named Stark to go to the hangar bay to calm the surviving twin. John rushed forward in time to catch Ashan as he fell.  
  
"Whoa! Who was on that ship?" Crichton asked.  
  
Ashan seemed incapable of response, he had gone somewhere near catatonic. It was pilot who responded.  
  
"I believe that was his wife's vessel, John." Pilot's voice was gentle.  
  
John looked down at the empty eyes of the man he had just caught in a near faint. It was as if he had died as well. 


	11. Ch 9 Revelations

Talyn was somewhat startled by the sudden appearance of the young woman on his command deck. He was in no state however to be concerned with this new life form. Rainne had made it up to the cluster to see Crais slumped at an odd angle at the far side of the neural cluster, just out of her reach.. She was not ready to go in there, yet terrified of losing Crais. Talyn was a distant presence in her mind, and he was scared by the events as well. Rainne was sure their combined fears, magnified by the connection in the neural cluster, would prove to be too much for her. She was screaming to Crais, trying to rouse him. She kept telling herself over and over, that he could not be dead, not dead, he wouldn't leave her that way.  
  
  
  
K'Tahli took a moment to take in the surroundings. When Ranjaa's pilot realized that the shot would reach them, the pilot enhanced K'Tahli's power to teleport and sent her to the relative safety of the stunned gunship. The pilot could not interface with Talyn, so she harbored within K'Tahli, quietly waiting for a new ship.  
  
K'Tahli, unaware of this and unsteady on her feet, followed the sound of the screams.  
  
Rainne showed a moment of surprise to see an unknown being in her ship. Her mind quickly surmised that if she were a threat, Talyn would not let her approach Rainne.  
  
"Help me?" Rainne asked the newcomer.  
  
"How?" K'Tahli asked. There was no question of "if." This woman made her feel an instant kinship.  
  
Rainne pointed to Crais' slumped form.  
  
"I can't get to him. He may need my help, I can't get there!" The fear was rising in her voice again.  
  
K'Tahli looked at the short few steps it seemed to the other side of the cluster.  
  
"Why can't you go in there?"  
  
"It is the ship's neural cluster. It is too much to explain right now, but the bond I share with Talyn is strong, new, and I do not have control. That is Talyn's primary Captain. Talyn is young, the battle has scared him. I could not go in there. I would be overwhelmed." The beseeching eyes told as much of the story as her words. She loved the man who was in danger.  
  
With a slight nod of assent, K'Tahli called on her most protective mental shielding and walked to the unconscious man.  
  
"He's breathing!" She called out "He seems stable, merely knocked out."  
  
Rainne's eyes filled with tears at the intense relief.  
  
Up close K'Tahli was disconcerted by the resemblance of the inert form to Ashan. She reached down to grab the unconscious man under his arms, to drag him to Rainne. She bent at the knees and took a deep breath, assuming the solidly muscled man before her would be heavy. Even the scent was similar, the same warm masculine spice of her Ashan. Chiding herself at her own distraction, K'Tahli drug him to Rainne.  
  
Rainne embraced Crais, crying his name softly, entreating him to awaken. Her sense of Talyn was getting stronger.  
  
"He's ok, Talyn. Are you all right?" Rainne got no answer, but Talyn seemed to relax a bit, the swaying and panic seemed to ease.  
  
Crais was coming around. K'Tahli, exhausted from the teleport and the mental shielding, watched him reach up and stroke a lock of spiky red hair behind Rainne's ear.  
  
"C'thha, what happened?" The endearment he used looking at Rainne and the rich timbre of the voice shocked K'Tahli into stillness.  
  
Crais sat up, wincing at the injury to his shoulder from hitting the command wall.  
  
He stood up and touched the back of his neck.  
  
"Talyn.Talyn answer me." His voice had the strength of command but the affection and concern of a parent. He stood up a bit straighter, the only outward sign of concern was a momentary flexing of his jaw.  
  
After a tense moment of silence, K'Tahli heard a series of beeps and sounds. The relief on Rainne's face and the small smile on the face of the Captain told her that the ship was responding.  
  
"No Talyn, it was an accident." The Captain's tone lost its command and was all soothing concern. "That pulse knocked us hard enough to make judgment difficult."  
  
The tones did not sound convinced.  
  
K'Tahli went over to Rainne and whispered to her.  
  
"Tell him that Ranjaa was maneuvering to position herself between the marauder and Talyn. She knew that move would put her in the certain path to death. She would hold him blameless."  
  
Rainne nodded a silent thanks to K'Tahli. The motion of their whispered conversation alerted Crais to K'Tahli's presence. His reaction was not quite as benign as Rainne's reaction had been, but his concern right now was Talyn.  
  
Rainne was having an easier time contacting Talyn now. She spoke aloud.  
  
"Talyn, Crais is right. It was an accident. I know this for a fact." Rainne recounted K'Tahli's explanation to Talyn in her head too. Talyn was much calmer, so Crais stepped out of the cluster and approached the women.  
  
  
  
K'Tahli was staring at Crais with an unreadable expression as he strode out to her and Rainne. K'Tahli wanted to look over at Rainne, ask her what she had said, but she could not pull her gaze away from the man coming toward her. As menacing as his stride and expression were, she was not afraid of him. He was too familiar.  
  
"Welcome." He said to K'Tahli, both charming and suspicious at the same time. He knew Talyn disregarded her as no threat, and Rainne seemed to have instant rapport.  
  
He wanted to ask why and how she came aboard. Beneath the suspicion, he felt the same kinship with her that the others displayed. Not knowing the reason was disturbing to him.  
  
Training and manners won out, and he gave her a small and formal nod of the head.  
  
"You are?" He let the question hang in the air.  
  
"My name is K'Tahli Ferrian." She squared her shoulders. In her training, she learned to read a variety of people. Sebaceans trained as Peacekeepers were very difficult to crack. In the Captain she saw the trust, the affinity and then the veil of suspicion that came down and shrouded it. She bristled slightly from being dismissed and suspected.  
  
"And YOU are?" she countered.  
  
He nearly chuckled at the pluckiness of this little Raven-haired woman who mysteriously appeared. His Rainne gave him the same guff.  
  
"Forgive my rudeness." he repeated the nod with a new and mocking tone. " This is my mate, Rainne. You are aboard the leviathan Talyn." His hand swept an arc to encompass the ship in his introduction.  
  
"I am Bialar Crais."  
  
The resemblance, the voice, and the dark eyes.it all slammed into her mind with a sudden force. The stories, the wondering about Ashan's true family, the memories of conversations with Marata.K'Tahli realized she was staring at her husband's brother.  
  
The shock must have registered on her face because the mocking grin faded from his face and was replaced by a look of concern. He began to speak, but she heard nothing but the rushing in her own ears. She fainted.  
  
  
  
On Moya  
  
John and Aeryn walked Ashan toward what passed for spare quarters. He was still nearly catatonic with grief.  
  
"C'mon pal. Snap out of it." Crichton chided.  
  
Ashan raised his eyes to John. They were no longer vacant, but blazing. The fury of them reminded him of the many times Crais had vowed to kill Crichton.  
  
"I will destroy the Captain, his ship. Then she will be avenged." His words were quiet, but his tone was deadly.  
  
"We have friends on that ship. Associates as well." Aeryn countered. John found himself pleased that Aeryn felt the need to amend calling Crais her friend. Associate was a relationship he was much more comfortable with.  
  
"The make your peace with them, for I will send them to their creator."  
  
"I don't know where you come from Mister, but we don't just blast first and ask questions later." Crichton ignored the sideways glance Aeryn gave him. Ok, so maybe he had done his share of blasting first.  
  
"You DO NOT understand!" Ashan yanked his arms from their grasp, and turned to head for command.  
  
John forgot how blasted strong Sebaceans were.  
  
"Well, I don't know what you plan on doing in command, Moya has no weapons." John and Aeryn hurried after the retreating form.  
  
Ashan spun on them, halting them mid stride. John stepped forward and Ashan backhanded him, sending him crashing into the wall.  
  
Focused on Aeryn, Ashan did not see D'Argo come up behind him. D'Argo pinned Ashan's arms to his side to restrain him.  
  
"Pilot sent me." D'Argo explained, "Moya was concerned at his intent to kill Talyn. She is torn between the desire to go to them and verify that they are all well and keeping what she terms this "madman" away from her son."  
  
"Her son?" Ashan stilled his struggles against D'Argo "But he is a gunship?"  
  
"A Peacekeeper hybrid. But her son, nonetheless."  
  
"I do not care!" Ashan resumed his struggles, becoming more like a cornered animal with each passing moment.  
  
"He's losin it. Pilot! Get Stark up here!" John called "to be a fly on the wall when those two get to talking." he muttered to himself.  
  
D'Argo gave his captive a shove into an abandoned cell and secured the door. Ashan flung himself against the closure.  
  
"Release me!" He raged.  
  
"There are people we love on that ship as well." D'Argo growled through the grate.  
  
"What could you know of Love?" Ashan, tenuously holding to his sanity, hurled the question like an accusation at D'Argo. For a large warrior, the Luxan had a great capacity for love that Ashan could not see in his blind pain.  
  
Stunned by the question, D'Argo could not immediately respond. He was torn. He empathized, he remembered vividly his LoLann. But this man wanted to destroy Talyn, and all of his occupants.for D'Argo, that was not an option. 


	12. Ch 10 Family Ties

Stark entered the cell via an access channel, studied his charge. He did not need to be in contact to feel the waves of pain and rage emanating off Ashan. He did not speak, but walked up to him and put his hand on Ashan's face.  
  
Ashan was startled by Starks appearance. He had studied this little known phenomenon but had never met a Stykera Banik. The hand on his face was seeping the rage from Ashan, leaving only the grief. Impervious to those looking on, Ashan collapsed, weeping into Stark. Stark removed his mask, the light filling the room, enveloping both men. Linking was very easy, Stark noted. Either he was very ready to embrace his own death, or he was gifted extraverbally. Stark realized it was death he sought.  
  
Something deep in the recesses of this man's mind, Stark saw something that would not allow him to ease the man into the peaceful death he sought. He replaced his mask.  
  
"She is still alive." Stark looked at Ashan, gauging his reaction. A fragile hope flared briefly.  
  
"She is alive" Stark repeated. "Alive! Alive! Alive! Alive!" He sing- songed out of the room. Starks moments of lucidity were generally never long.  
  
Ashan was unsure of what to believe. He had heard of the Banik Stykera abilities, but of the madness as well. But could she be alive? Why could he not sense their bond?  
  
He threw back his head and howled. He bowed his head; the hair that had escaped from its band fell forward to obscure part of his face.  
  
  
  
"Creepy." Said Chiana, who had just come around the corner.  
  
"Yeah, Stark has such a charming bedside manner." Crichton quipped.  
  
"Pilot asked me to bring him some food cubes." Chiana explained her presence.  
  
John doubted it was Pilot's order, more likely Chiana's own curiosity that drew her down to this level.  
  
"So, who is he?" Chiana asked.  
  
D'Argo was irritated at Chiana's interest, mistaking it for her usual shippiness.  
  
Chiana peered in at the man bent forward. She stepped back a minute.  
  
"Looks harmless."  
  
At that Ashan raised his head.  
  
"You?" He abruptly rose to look at Chiana. "You were in a vision.why? Who are you?"  
  
She backed away, nearly tripping herself in her haste to leave. She paused a moment. In an uncharacteristic display of vulnerability.  
  
"I don't know." She fled.  
  
The assembled crew looked uncertain as how to proceed.  
  
"May I make a request?" it was Ashan who broke the uncomfortable silence. "Please.ask Moya to move into range to contact Talyn. I need to know."  
  
He did not look up, he would meet no one's eyes. The earlier rage was still hanging in the atmosphere. The silence stretched out to its former discomfort. Pilot responded.  
  
"Moya will consider your request."  
  
  
  
On Talyn.  
  
Crais had rushed forward in time to catch K'Tahli when she fainted. Rainne touched K'Tahli's face, assured Crais she was essentially unharmed.  
  
"You have such a way with women." Rainne smiled at Crais as he picked up the unconscious girl. Crais did not return the smile, but his countenance softened a bit.  
  
"Talyn, please assist Rainne in running diagnostics on any potential damage you may have incurred." Crais gave the gentle order. He turned to Rainne. "I will see to our guest and return."  
  
  
  
In vacant quarters down the passageway, Crais laid K'Tahli gently on the bunk. He studied her for a moment. Talyn had explained to him that she had been on the now deceased leviathan. Teleportation was not unusual in some races, and it was hard to discern K'Tahli's origins. He brushed a stray lock of her hair from her forehead. He never did that with anyone but Rainne. Her eyes fluttered open, focused, went wide.  
  
"Captain." she tried to sit up. He sat back, stiffly, as if his own kindness embarrassed him.  
  
"Allow me to apologize if I gave you a fright. I meant you no harm."  
  
His formal tone was back, and it was an obvious attempt at distancing himself. K'Tahli thought for a moment of trying to seek his mind, then rejected the idea. Trust would be essential to develop with this man. Ashan's brother.the thought of it warmed her, she smiled.  
  
"You." she faltered. Something about his cool formality made her hesitate to share her discovery. "You look very much like someone I am close to." She finished. It was truth, just not the whole truth. She put her hand to her forehead and swayed slightly, as if dizzy. The ploy worked as she planned and he put his hands on her arms to steady her. She allowed the skin-to-skin contact to let her communicate the essence of her relationship with Crais. The tactile neural bond gave no facts; just let him feel what she felt. He dropped his hands from her arms as quickly as decorum would allow.  
  
"Talyn!" He stood abruptly. "Send Rainne to these quarters."  
  
K'Tahli studied the clenched jaw and watched Crais easily slip his emotions back into control. That was very much unlike Ashan.  
  
Rainne came in and looked at Crais.  
  
"Talyn said you sent for me?"  
  
K'Tahli saw the expression change again on Crais. Ah, she thought to herself, there is something the brothers do share. An intense ability to love.  
  
"I will see to Talyn. Please see that our guest is comfortable. We will need to prepare to contact Moya." He strode from the room.  
  
  
  
The women regarded each other from across the room.  
  
"Are you all right?" Rainne asked.  
  
"I am. Thank you." K'Tahli regarded Rainne carefully. She was an ethereally pretty woman. Her eyes were a deep green that seemed to tell the story of her life to any who cared to look. Despite a haunted look behind the kindness, there was steel. Rainne would not be a good one to underestimate, but a worthy friend to have.  
  
Rainne watched the girl size her up, make her decision. From what she could remember, Rainne made friends easily, people naturally liked her. But this was different. There was a connection. Unlike Crais' reaction to the connection, Rainne welcomed it.  
  
"I meant to thank you for pulling Crais from the cluster. He means a great deal to me."  
  
"I had guessed as much." K'Tahli smiled. Emotional expression was not easy for Rainne, either. Rainne smiled back at her.  
  
"K'Tahli? I know that Crais can be.difficult.but most people don't faint just at his name. What happened?"  
  
Rainne phrased the question gently. She had made a similar determination about K'Tahli. There was steel in her too. She had gone without hesitation into the cluster for a stranger, she had teleported, which had to require some nerve. But something about Crais had broken through her defenses. She reminded Rainne a bit of a wolf she had read about on the station. The animal was fierce and intelligent, but loved for life and could teach loyalty to the Peacekeepers.  
  
"Where to begin."  
  
"You recognized Crais. Were you in Peacekeeper custody?" Rainne asked, but somehow she did not think that was the case.  
  
"No!" K'Tahli quickly reassured Rainne. "I was never in Peacekeeper custody. Until our families were destroyed a few solar days ago, I had no real contact with them. We lived on a remote planet that was ignored by the PK." K'Tahli's face clouded at the mention of the attack on their families.  
  
"Why did they ignore it?"  
  
"Solar flares made communication difficult, technology virtually impossible. It was home to healers, psychics, teleports and holistic sciences. Some escaped there, it was a refuge for many. My own mother fled to the planet when she carried me." A tear escaped at the mention of her mother, it fell unnoticed.  
  
"Was your mother fleeing Peacekeepers too?"  
  
"No. Our people have very strict laws about bloodline purity, and recreation without a sanctioned, bonded mate. My mother fell in love with a passing trader of mixed heritage. When her father discovered she carried a child, he planned her execution. She fled." Rainne winced at K'Tahli's mention of an execution for being in love.  
  
"Then how do you know Bialar?"  
  
K'Tahli looked directly at Rainne. There was nothing to denote a reason for distrust.  
  
"I am married to his youngest brother."  
  
"But his brother was killed!" Rainne vaguely noted that K'Tahli had not used the past tense.  
  
K'Tahli, not knowing about Tauvo, was taken aback a moment. There had been two! And one she would never know.She bent her head a moment and mourned for a man she never knew. Her eyes were hot but dry when she looked back up at Rainne.  
  
"Rainne. Let me tell you what I know. Ashan knows more, and Marata would have been able to tell it all, but she was killed as well."  
  
Rainne nodded her assent. She was stunned, but had no reason not to believe K'Tahli. Rainne considered asking Talyn not to vid chip the conversation, but rejected the idea.  
  
"Ashan's mother was pregnant when her boys were conscripted. Despite knowing that Sebacean boys were meant to be Peacekeepers, their removal was her undoing. She hid the pregnancy, and brought her infant son to our out- of-the-way system. She gave him to a couple known for their compassion. She asked only that he be kept from the Peacekeepers and devote his life to a peaceful pursuit."  
  
"How did you know it was Bialar's mother?" Rainne asked.  
  
"Our people do not have secondary names, or middle names. Some do not even use surnames. Marata named Ashan with a middle name- perhaps even then she knew he might run into his brothers. His name is Ashan Crais Ferrian."  
  
K'Tahli sat back against the wall. Talyn could feel her, and pulsed warmly behind her back. Rainne watched the lights as Talyn pulsed behind K'Tahli's back.  
  
"I think the leviathan somehow knows. Is that possible?" K'Tahli asked.  
  
"Normally, I would not know how to answer that. My bond with Talyn is very new. He might." Rainne made a mental note to ask Talyn.  
  
K'Tahli closed her eyes and allowed a smile. Rainne saw the blissful expression and asked about it.  
  
"What are you smiling about?"  
  
"Oh Rainne, you should see my Ashan! The resemblance is so strong. They both have jet hair and eyes you could fall into and never return.they both are intense in all they do, charming when they want to be."  
  
Rainne could not help but smile. The smile faded a bit. She remembered her dream- Bialar was not fighting with himself.he was fighting his brother.  
  
"K'Tahli, Crais will not welcome this news."  
  
K'Tahli had sensed that earlier but had no idea why.  
  
"I felt that from him. Why is that?"  
  
"His other brother, Tauvo. During a battle, a spacecraft clipped his prowler, sending him to his death. Crais still wrestles with that loss. He only recently opened himself enough to love me. He may choose to shield against more pain and not accept your story."  
  
They sat together in silence, the heavy news between them.  
  
"You realize that would make you my sister. I would welcome that." K'Tahli said.  
  
Rainne shifted, dropped her gaze.  
  
"Crais and I are not married." Rainne admitted. She was not sure how K'Tahli's beliefs may or may not mirror those of her people.  
  
"Of course you are not. Your relationship is too new. I grew up next to Ashan's home, we played together as children. Still, when we decided to become man and wife, it took us years to make sure. Please do not fear that my heritage would cause me to pass judgment on you."  
  
"Thank you." Rainne hesitated, and then reached over to enfold her new sister in an embrace.  
  
Crais found them like that as he strode in to announce Moya's approach. 


	13. Ch 11 Secrets

On Moya D'Argo opened the grate on Ashan's cell.  
  
"Talyn assured Moya that the young woman you seek is aboard and well."  
  
Despite the hateful things Ashan had hurled at D'Argo, D'Argo held no animosity for him. Ashan sagged against the wall at the relief he felt. It took him a moment to trust himself to speak.  
  
"Thank you, Luxan. She is my life. I fear I was not myself."  
  
"I do understand."  
  
Ashan looked at D'Argo. "I believe you do Luxan. You bear the scars."  
  
D'Argo knew that he did not mean the various battle injuries, viewable through parts of his uniform.  
  
Ashan seemed unconvinced of Moya's assurances.  
  
"Why do still seem concerned? She is safe." D'Argo asked.  
  
"I can't sense her. Perhaps it was the teleportation. This is a very new skill for her and it does take a great deal out of her. But I should still be able to sense her."  
  
"What else could sever that link?"  
  
"Very little. Her death, an emotional burn like the teleport. and if she no longer wanted me to be able to feel her." Ashan responded, the conviction in his voice obviously rejecting the last option. D' Argo's thoughts drifted back to Chiana's dream. Crais had been recreating with someone other than Rainne. Was it this woman? That would explain the loss of the link. But even Crais wouldn't set aside Rainne in the space of a few solar days? D'Argo wisely chose to hold his thoughts to himself.  
  
  
  
In command, Pilot has opened a view channel to Talyn. Talyn trained his internal camera on K'Tahli.  
  
"Ashan!" she nearly fell so great was her relief.  
  
"I feared the worst, I could not feel you! Ranjaa has been killed, so I did not have the link to the twins." Tears of relief and joy streamed down her face. Crais stepped forward to support her. The camera showed only his arms, as it was trained on K'Tahli.  
  
"C'thha." Husky with emotion, Ashan's voice was nearly identical to Crais'. Rainne stared at the view screen in disbelief.  
  
"I thought you were dead. What happened to the link?" He asked her.  
  
"When the pulse weapon released toward Ranjaa, the pilot and I were linked. Pilot was able to push my abilities beyond their usual realm and I teleported to Talyn." The memory caused her to sway a bit, and Crais tightened his hold. K'Tahli unconsciously reached up to hold onto Crais' hand atop her shoulder. The movement was not lost on Ashan.  
  
"I will heal our fractured bond. I await your arrival here on Moya." Ashan's eyes were bright with unshed tears as well.  
  
K'Tahli looked around at the faces beyond her dear Ashan. She would rather not have this conversation so publicly, but Rainne had explained how Ashan reacted, vowing to kill Talyn. She understood their distrust. But if she went to Moya now, Ashan would prevent her from returning to Talyn.  
  
"Come to Talyn, come to me. I wish for you to meet my new found friends."  
  
"That girl's got to get a little choosy about who she makes friends with." Crichton said.  
  
"I am grateful for their care of you, but I want you off that gunship."  
  
"Careful buddy, you are standing in that gunship's mamma." Crichton reminded him.  
  
"I apologize. Perhaps it is his captain I do not like."  
  
"Join the club." D'Argo and John muttered at almost the exact same time.  
  
"You do not even know him!" K'Tahli countered. "Please, Ashan, please come to Talyn."  
  
She was hiding something. Ashan had loved her from the cradle and knew her well. She was never adept at concealment and was trying to hide something now. His concern escalated to the beginnings of real fear. What hold did this man have on her? Most of Moya's crew had an uneasy relationship at best with this former Peacekeeper.  
  
"Return her to me at once." Ashan demanded to the unseen captain.  
  
Crais stepped into view and Talyn widened the camera angle.  
  
"You are not in a position to demand anything. She has requested not to leave."  
  
"You have brainwashed her!"  
  
"I will not stand for your baseless accusations." Crais growled. "You are a madman!"  
  
John snorted. "Well isn't that the Peacekeeper calling the kettle black!" He could not help himself, he had to laugh.  
  
Crais had instructed Talyn to sever the connection. K'Tahli whimpered when the image blinked out. She turned and held on to Crais. She buried her face and cried into his shoulder. He stood, stiffly, hands down at his sides. Rainne stepped up to the pair and shushed K'Tahli like a child.  
  
Through her link to Talyn, Rainne spoke softly, directly to Crais.  
  
"She needs you, hold onto her."  
  
Crais scowled, confused. "You take her." He countered, but he brought his arms up to comfort the shaking girl.  
  
To the disconcertment of them both, K'Tahli answered.  
  
"I can hear you, both of you. I can feel the ship too, but not hear him. I am sorry I listened, but I did not know not to." She looked up at Crais. "She is right. I need you." K'Tahli indicated to Rainne, "You too. But I need Ashan to come here. He may seem mad to you" she nodded to Crais, "But he is angry, hurt, confused. He knows I am hiding something from him."  
  
"Hiding?" Crais asked.  
  
Rainne and K'Tahli both looked down. Rainne touched his arm, her expression promised him to explain it more fully later.  
  
"If I go now, he may never let me return. That is not something I could bear."  
  
Crais set her back from him.  
  
"If this is of such importance to you, we will find a way. I am hesitant to release you to his care until I know more." The simple admission told K'Tahli all she needed to know. It was as close to acceptance of the bond of kinship that he would voice aloud. Rainne saw it too, and smiled.  
  
"If you would please go back to your quarters and rest for an arn. I need to speak with Rainne." Crais paused, "ALONE." He emphasized. K'Tahli blushed a bit at her breach of telepathic etiquette earlier and agreed.  
  
  
  
When she had left, Rainne turned and held Crais.  
  
"You will tell me." It was not a question.  
  
"Yes, Bialar, soon." She tucked a stray wisp of his hair neatly back into place. " It has been a long day for everyone, and will get longer."  
  
Crais raised his brows to question what she meant by her last comment. Rainne was not volunteering any more information at that time.  
  
"I will go to Moya."  
  
Rainne's suggestion took Crais back.  
  
"I can find out more talking to the crew and to Moya, without the view screen. Perhaps I can convince this Ashan that it would be best for him to come here."  
  
He still did not look convinced. "What of D'Argo?"  
  
Crais held his anger in check when he saw her flinch just at his name.  
  
"I can handle it. I need to do this." She replied, speaking to herself as much as to Crais.  
  
"Why? What is it about her that affects you so?" he asked, perhaps hoping her answer would tell him why he trusted the dark haired woman as well.  
  
"I don't think I can explain it. She would do it for me. She pulled you from the cluster when I couldn't get to you."  
  
"I will arrange it." He pulled her by the hand toward their quarters.  
  
"This is not the way to command!" Rainne protested  
  
"I know." He growled, and captured her lips in a possessive kiss. "But we have an arn to kill." The emerald in her eyes deepened as she returned his kiss.  
  
"Yes." Was all she had the time to respond. 


	14. Ch 12 Reunion

On Moya John, Aeryn and D'Argo accompanied Ashan to the hangar bay to meet Rainne.  
  
"Hey Stormy. How's life with the boys?" John asked.  
  
She smiled. As strange as he was, she did miss Crichton's unusual way of putting things.  
  
"I am very happy, thank you." She addressed Crichton, but was looking at Ashan. K'Tahli's description and the image she had seen on the view screen just an arn before could not prepare her for the sight of him in person.  
  
He had nearly identical markings on his face to the ones on K'Tahli. He was stunning. Even knowing he was not a Peacekeeper, he had an aura of command about him. But how had no one else seen the resemblance to Bialar? He was a younger version of his brother, he didn't have Crais' edginess. There was an inherent kindness beneath the anger that Bialar might have had if he had not been taken so young to the Peacekeepers.  
  
Rainne intended to walk forward to greet Ashan when D'Argo stepped in.  
  
"Rainne."  
  
"D'Argo."  
  
"I am pleased you came to Moya."  
  
"I had to. For K'Tahli." At the sound of her name, Ashan rushed forward.  
  
D'Argo stopped him from touching Rainne, from getting too close.  
  
"Is she well?" Ashan asked, hints of his need to see K'Tahli evident in his tone.  
  
"She is. She wants you to come to Talyn. I am here to find out if you are still a threat to my family." At her calling Crais and Talyn "family," D'Argo growled.  
  
She glared at the Luxan. She turned back to John, Aeryn and Ashan.  
  
"Could you give me a moment with D'Argo?"  
  
D'Argo felt a surge of hope that she had forgiven him the hyper rage.  
  
"Please lock me in the cell alone so I may speak with him."  
  
The meaning was clear. She would like to speak with him, just not unprotected.  
  
They complied with her request and left the two alone.  
  
  
  
"Rainne," D'Argo began, "You can trust Ashan. He thought his love had been killed by Talyn at Crais' command." He searched her eyes for her understanding. Perhaps for both his mistakes as well. "You must believe," D'Argo continued, "Love can make a man act in ways that are not normal for him."  
  
Rainne could sense the apology in D'Argo's words.  
  
"I believe that." She answered. The tentative renewal was broken with D'Argo's next words.  
  
"Crais is very possessive of the woman." His voice was almost petulant. "Did you see how he held her? Kept her away from her husband?" D'Argo paused, unsure of taking Rainne's silence for assent. "They are alone now. How can you be sure."  
  
Rainne stood. "Sure of what D'Argo? Sure of Crais' fidelity to me?"  
  
"Yes!" he growled back.  
  
Rainne just shook her head. "He loves me. He would never hurt me." She emphasized the word never, "Crais has changed so much. You should see him with Talyn, he is like a loving father, a patient teacher. He treats K'Tahli like a sister. He LOVES her like a SISTER!" She spun so her back was to D'Argo. He cursed the bars at not being able to reach her.  
  
Rainne wanted D'Argo to understand that she was happy. She wanted him to be happy for her. Looking at the angry stance, she realized it would not happen today. She activated the comm. badge they gave her and asked John to release her and bring Ashan to the hangar bay.  
  
"You deny the evidence right in front of you and only believe what you want to believe!" D'Argo hurled the accusation at Rainne.  
  
"Perhaps you should listen to your own counsel." Rainne said quietly, and prepared to return to Talyn.  
  
  
  
On Talyn  
  
K'Tahli was pacing. Her nervousness was making Talyn nervous as well. He was not accustomed to having agitated telepaths aboard.  
  
"No Talyn, she is fine." Crais assured him. Talyn was only marginally reassured, and he continued to try and soothe K'Tahli with soft lights and sounds. She trailed her fingertips across the wall as she had seen Rainne do. It made her feel better.  
  
"What is the cause for this concern? You assured me this is your mate. Does he beat you?"  
  
"No!" she answered. She smiled and thought how brotherly a question. "We have lost much and gained much in a few short solar days. Our telepathic bond was fractured by the teleportation. For me, that is sufficient reason for agitation." She resumed her pacing.  
  
"Well, you are making Talyn skittish. Please, sit down."  
  
She sat on the floor in front of him.  
  
"My mother used to braid my hair when I was upset. Would you?" She asked without turning around.  
  
She would have laughed aloud to see the astonished look on Crais' face. She had no way of knowing that such casual intimacy with a stranger was completely against his training. His love for Rainne was unlocking the gentler side of him, but that could not explain the easy familiarity he felt with K'Tahli. He did not love her like he loved Rainne. He had never experienced what he felt for Rainne with anyone. He removed a brush from Rainne's things and began brushing the black hair. He noticed that the lights Talyn had chosen were the soft orange hues of a Hynerian sunset, but K'Tahli's hair looked almost violet. She sighed at the pleasure of the brushstrokes, and the reflection faded to a soft green. As he began a clumsy braid, the strands reflected a golden yellow.  
  
"Hmmmmm. I know," she said, "It's because I am part Interion."  
  
She sat up and patted the braid.  
  
"Not bad." She grinned at him. Then she saw the look on his face. She had responded to Crais' thought. "I am sorry!" She apologized for her intrusion on his thoughts. "I did it again. I am so used to Ashan's thoughts being open to me."  
  
He studied her for a moment.  
  
"So it is Ashan that I remind you of?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I believe I am honored." He retreated from the closeness again with formality. With a small nod he rose and left the room.  
  
K'Tahli leaned her head back to the spot that Crais just vacated. The essence of him still resonated in the room. She had great respect for Rainne, for getting close to Bialar Crais was not an easy task.  
  
Without any forewarning, her sense of Ashan came flooding back. An overhead com link requested her presence at the docking bay.  
  
"Hey Lucy!! I 'm home!!" Crichton called as he stepped out of the tiny leviathan.  
  
"Crichton." Crais' tone was carefully neutral, neither menacing nor welcoming. "Is officer Sun with you?"  
  
Crichton's smile slipped a notch.  
  
"In that thing? We used Crisco to get me, Rainy Day and King Tut inside."  
  
K'Tahli did not have time to be puzzled by the boyishly handsome man with the bizarre manner of speaking. Emerging last from Denali, behind Rainne, was Ashan.  
  
It felt like cycles rather than solar days since she last held him. Still she walked slowly as if rushing forward would dispel an illusion and he would disappear.  
  
When they reached each other in the center of the room, they placed their hands together, palm to palm. Then they touched each cheek with just their fingertips, then placed their foreheads together. It was almost like a dance, a ritual. Even Crichton was moved by the display. Ashan then gathered her close in his arms, as if cocooning her in the safety only he could provide. For a long while, no one spoke. Rainne realized that K'Tahli and Ashan were speaking, very much like she and Crais could through their link to Talyn.  
  
  
  
Crais spoke quietly to Rainne. "C'thha. You felt he could be trusted?"  
  
"Look at them! Does this look like a man who would hurt her?"  
  
"But how did you know?"  
  
Rainne looked for a long moment into Crais' eyes. She knew him, trusted him. She had to tell him. The task of bringing fresh pain to this man fell to her. She did not like it, but would be the one to reveal the secret.  
  
Before she could recommend they go someplace private to talk, John spoke up.  
  
"Well, I can see I am the fifth wheel here. Just wanted to make sure nobody got gun happy. I am going to take the Mystery machine back to Moya."  
  
"Wait!" K'Tahli called to him. Crichton got his first clear look at K'Tahli.  
  
"Hey! If it isn't Queen tut. Were you both drunk and in the navy? Wake up with freaky writing on your face?" Crichton's words made no sense, but K'Tahli sensed his words were not duplicity.  
  
"No. The markings we wear proudly. The center marks on our foreheads were done on our wedding day."  
  
"Rings don't hurt as much." John remarked back to her.  
  
She chose not to acknowledge his odd comment about rings. She introduced herself.  
  
"I am K'Tahli Ferrian. Please extend my thanks To Moya and the crew for caring for Ashan."  
  
"Sure thing." John was still fascinated by the intricate markings on her face.  
  
"One other thing." She walked over to Denali. She placed both hands on him. Together they grieved for a moment. For the space of a Microt, her entire body flared, awash in a pale fluorescence.  
  
Then she stepped back.  
  
"Does everyone is this place glow except for me?" John asked, to no one in particular.  
  
"I released Ranjaa's pilot to Denali. The twins' pilots were spirit forms, pure energy. After the pilot helped me teleport to Talyn, I have carried her in my mind. Not a perfect solution, but an acceptable arrangement until I could free her in Denali."  
  
"You've had someone else in your head all this time?" John asked. He had a brief moment of a memory he named "Harvey." He shuddered.  
  
"Well, yes." She paused. "That is why I couldn't control myself with Bialar earlier."  
  
John choked on whatever he was going to say next. He looked over at Crais, then at Rainne and Ashan, who did not seem in the least upset by her admission.  
  
When K'Tahli understood the lewdness of what John thought she meant, she blatantly entered his head.  
  
"I meant control in eavesdropping on thoughts. For a telepath that is the lowest form of rudeness." She glared at John and gave it to him with both barrels. "Besides that, he is my husband's brother."  
  
"No shit?" John said aloud. "This is my cue to leave." He headed over to Denali.  
  
He was cackling to himself. "Do they know?"  
  
K'Tahli and Rainne both shook their heads no.  
  
"Like sands through the hourglass..so are the days of our lives." John was still giggling when he boarded Denali. Rainne's transport would be returned later.  
  
  
  
An uneasy silence followed his departure. Before anyone could speak, Crais spun on his heel and went to his quarters. Rainne hurried after him.  
  
  
  
Alone in the docking bay, Ashan took K'Tahli's face in his hands. He kissed her, at first carefully as if he was dreaming. He was drowning in her, in the feel and scent of her. He dragged himself back to the surface. He looked directly at her eyes.  
  
"C'thha. What are you hiding from me?" 


	15. Ch 13 Brothers

Rainne was nervous. Talyn repeated his questioning to her as she followed Crais down the passageway. "Talyn, please calm down. I need to be alone with Bialar for a while."  
  
"You are agitated."  
  
"Yes, Talyn. But things will work out. We have a long way to go before that happens, and it is not going to be smooth or easy. But you trust me."  
  
The last was a statement, not a question. Talyn considered her words, and the conflicting emotions that accompanied them. He sensed she was soothed by her own words to him. He fought to understand this human he and Crais cared for.  
  
  
  
Inside the chamber, Crais was aware of Talyn's concerns and Rainne's response. He knew he was not going to like what she had to say. That knowledge chilled him, deeply. He would not abuse the neural link and probe for the source. She would tell him.  
  
She walked in to the chamber. Several things assailed Crais at once. She lingered near the doorway, made no move to approach him. The shimmering unshed tears in her eyes proved his undoing. He closed the distance between them.  
  
"What have I done, C'thha?"  
  
"No!" Rainne cried, "Nothing! Please." she stepped back from his embrace, " I need to tell you something."  
  
The distance made his jaw flex but he silently waited for her to speak. She claimed he had done nothing but needed to step away from him. Her heart wanted to shatter when she saw him carefully pull on his gloves and stand straight. He had not been so formal with her alone in a long time. She realized he was shielding himself. She closed her eyes, briefly. How could such joyous news be the bearer of such pain? She knew from the moment she discovered this relationship this journey of revelation would be difficult.  
  
"Ashan was raised by strangers." She began. A cloud of confusion skittered over the mask Crais had put in place. He was not sure what to expect, but this was not it.  
  
"His mother was pregnant with him when something terrible happened to her family. Her other two sons were taken by Peacekeepers." Rainne kept her eyes locked on Crais. His chin had come up defiantly; he was slowly shaking his head no. Rainne continued, " She was devastated by their loss, so she hid the new baby to keep him away. The adoptive mother gave him his family name so he may someday know them."  
  
Rainne was crying quietly at the naked pain and rage on Bialar's face. The muscle on his jaw was working with each word she spoke, and his hands were clenched within the black leather.  
  
"Ashan Crais Ferrian is your brother."  
  
Despite the realizations that had dawned within her explanation, the spoken words tore into Crais, shredding the remains of his control.  
  
"NO!" He bellowed the rage, betrayal and denial in a single word. He rushed from the chamber, murderous intent etched into his features.  
  
Rainne was rendered silent by the transformation. She knew he would react that way, yet seeing it hurt her beyond her capacity to imagine. Her own pain was so intense it was physical. She wanted to curl up and hide, but the man she had just wounded needed her more. She followed him out.  
  
  
  
In the hangar bay, K'Tahli and Ashan were having a very different version of the same conversation.  
  
"Why did you refuse to come to Moya? What was it that you were hiding?" Ashan asked her.  
  
K'Tahli had no assurances as to how Ashan would react. He knew from childhood he had been abandoned, with a specific reason. She just did not know how he would feel about discovering a brother, or discovering that Marata had hidden Bialar and Tauvo's existence to keep Ashan from seeking them out. He would have sought them out, and would probably been taken in as well. The Crais family would have been killed for their treachery, if they were still alive. So much was uncertain.  
  
"Did anyone on Moya tell you the former Peacekeeper captain's name?" K'Tahli asked him.  
  
Ashan knit his brow a moment. "No, they did not. Of what importance is that to you and I?"  
  
"His name is Crais. Bialar Crais. He is your older brother."  
  
Ashan stood abruptly and began to pace.  
  
"How do you know this? Just by his name?" Ashan retreated into the role of healer-clipped, quick questions-dig for the truth.  
  
K'Tahli was concerned at his calm demeanor, the rapid-fire questions.  
  
"No. He is so much like you." she began, but was cut off by Ashan's vehement denial.  
  
"Like me? No, wife, you are very much mistaken. I am not a killer, I do not hold anyone hostage, especially a man's wife. I have devoted my life to healing. I could no more change to a killer as he could change to a healer."  
  
K'Tahli was stunned.  
  
"I see you have been speaking to the crew on Moya, they have swayed you. I have never known you to be so closed minded to another being before."  
  
"You have been speaking to Talyn and Rainne as well, I see. I have never known you to be so easily swayed by a slick liar before." Ashan's words cut deep. K'Tahli was actually very reluctant to open herself to people, because to a telepath/amplifier, opening up to those with an evil nature can be poisonous. K'Tahli allowed herself a microt to deflect the unusually hurtful words. Ashan was not one to lash out this way.  
  
"Listen to me." K'Tahli spoke so quietly Ashan had to cease pacing to hear her. She stepped up to the man she loved more than her own life. "I sensed the kinship before I knew his name. Beyond the surface similarities, which are undeniable, he is so like you. Watch him with Rainne and you will see yourself with me. Watch him with Talyn, you will see yourself with the village children. He is your blood, your heritage!"  
  
Emotions ebbed and flowed across Ashan's face. He took a deep breath and held it for a moment. He released it slowly, trying to calm the raging storm inside of himself.  
  
"C'thha, you can not know what it is like to grow up with such uncertainty. I could tell from Marata's sketchy explanations as I grew that this was a possibility. What I did not expect was to be so devastated by the news. All of my childhood dreams and insecurities are coming to pass in the disjointed frenzy of a very bad dream." He shook his head as if to clear the images, but continued to speak. "I saw you with him, I saw the bond. I knew that Moya's crew deeply distrusted him. But he supported you, you allowed it, welcomed it. I knew.I did not want to face it. If it had been any other time than following your near death." he trailed off.  
  
K'Tahli allowed herself a small sigh as she watched the acceptance begin to bloom.  
  
It was then Bialar stormed into the room. He flung his coat to the floor, leaving him in a tank shirt and pants. His breathing was ragged from the rage and exertion. He looked every inch the madman that Ashan once accused him of being. His hair had come loose from the strap and stray bits clung to the sheen of perspiration like black slashes across his face. His eyes held all of the renewed pain of Tauvo's death relived. He fiercely believed this was an elaborate ruse to damage his defenses, lure him to trust.  
  
  
  
Ashan pushed K'Tahli behind him and strode toward Crais. A life of a healer did not make him meek by any means.  
  
"Who sent you?" Crais barked the order, advancing on Ashan. Rainne came around the corner and surveyed the scene. There would be no stopping them now. She beckoned K'Tahli over to her. They could do nothing but weather the coming storm.  
  
  
  
Ashan did not back down despite the fury coming off Crais in murderous waves.  
  
"I was not sent, not for the reason you claim." Ashan replied, his anger growing.  
  
"I have ONE brother," Crais began, "Who was killed during battle. NO others."  
  
Ashan had not been told about Tauvo, and he reeled. Crais noted the shock and the pain, but his rage was too consuming to appreciate the subtleties.  
  
Taking advantage of the momentary shock, Crais lunged at Ashan. He caught him in the midsection with his shoulder and they both fell. They grappled on the floor a moment; Ashan broke the hold and leapt away. The circled each other like carnivores.  
  
Rainne had seen enough violence in her young life to want to halt the tearing at each other she was witnessing now. She stepped forward only to meet a wall of resistance.  
  
"You would be injured. I cannot reach him. You must stand back."  
  
Talyn had encased K'Tahli and Rainne in a holding field.  
  
"Talyn, release me." Rainne insisted.  
  
"I cannot. They are beyond my communications now. I won't lose you too."  
  
Rainne's fear intensified when Talyn's words sunk in. This fight was going to end in death.  
  
The two brothers continued landing vicious blows, both were bleeding and gasping where they stood. There were no heated words exchanged, just the relentless physical anger.  
  
The sounds Talyn had been making throughout the fight had changed.  
  
Suddenly Crais stood straight, whirled on his heel and headed toward command.  
  
"What did Talyn say?" Ashan panted.  
  
Rainne answered, hope showing on her face for the first time in the Arn. "Talyn said to Crais: 'Moya has reported a Peacekeeper squadron heading their way and Moya has requested assistance'."  
  
"Was that all?" K'Tahli sensed something more.  
  
"No," Rainne began carefully, "Talyn told Crais respectfully to stop trying to kill his only remaining brother and come to command at once." 


	16. Ch 14 Advance Scouts

On Moya "Advance scouts, nothing more." Crais contacted Moya on the view screen, and was explaining to Crichton that the Prowlers' formation was a scouting party.  
  
"They are sent in response to an auto-beacon. Braca's ship must have had one. He didn't log his mission so they are not expecting us." Aeryn clarified.  
  
"When they come into range, alert Talyn."  
  
"Hey Crais?" Crichton called before Crais broke the connection, "You all right?"  
  
Aeryn looked over to John.  
  
"Yes Crichton." Crais replied stiffly. He broke the link.  
  
  
  
Aeryn and John looked at one another.  
  
"Did you see him?"  
  
"Of course I saw him, he looked awful!" Aeryn replied  
  
"When have you ever seen Captain Cool look like that on the comm. link?"  
  
"Do you know what is wrong?" Aeryn asked.  
  
Crichton considered telling her. He decided that maybe this brother might go a long way toward softening Crais. First the guy falls head over heels in love with Stormy. Love with a capital L, too. A blind man could see how Crais felt about Rainne. A Human! John loved the irony. Now this brother thing.He figured maybe even the former Captain had a shot at being.something more.  
  
"I'll let him tell you when he's ready." He looped his arm over Aeryn's shoulders. Now all they had to do was kick some Peacekeeper ass and it would be a really good day.  
  
  
  
On Talyn  
  
The chime at the door was unnecessary, Rainne knew it was K'Tahli. Talyn had showed her approach.  
  
"Come in, please." Rainne looked as exhausted as K'Tahli felt.  
  
"Will he be all right?" K'Tahli asked.  
  
"Eventually. Ashan seemed to take it well."  
  
"Not at first, but it was easier for him. He suspected he might have other family all along."  
  
"I can see how that might make the shock a bit milder."  
  
"Rainne?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"How did he take Talyn's acceptance of the relationship?"  
  
"That is difficult to say. He was not up to talking about it. He needed some time to himself."  
  
"As did Ashan."  
  
"What about you?" Rainne asked.  
  
"Oh, I am well. Tired, it has been a long few solar days." She gave a bit of a half grin, "There are some perks to being married to a healer. He gives a great relaxing massage. We didn't get to talk much either." Rainne didn't need telepathy to read that statement correctly. The both grinned. Rainne's smile dimmed a bit.  
  
"Speaking of healing." Rainne began. The tentative tone in her voice made K'Tahli look up at her.  
  
"Can you help me? I think I can use my.talent to help rather than to kill."  
  
"How?"  
  
"I am not sure. I know that the power is strongest when I am angry or threatened. I can't control it. I see it like your teleporting. You have control and direction, but a hard time with power. I seem to have power to spare, but no control and direction."  
  
The idea took shape in K'Tahli's mind as Rainne was speaking.  
  
"The easiest way to blend our strengths would be to link minds. I don't know if I could do that with a human. I am willing to try if you are?"  
  
"What about the rest of my memories?" Rainne looked haunted. "Remember when you first came aboard?"  
  
"Like it was yesterday." K'Tahli shot back. Rainne allowed herself to grin back at K'Tahli. So much had happened, it seemed like longer than a solar day.  
  
"I could not bear to go into Talyn's neural cluster. The powerful leviathan can help me unlock those memories. I am not ready to face them all. I may have done things, seen things.I can't handle..." Rainne faltered. K'Tahli reached forward and touched her fingertips to the tops of Rainne's cheekbones.  
  
"Rainne, I can go around those memories, shield them. Neither you nor I will see them. When you are stronger, you and Bialar can face them in the cluster."  
  
"Then let's get to work."  
  
  
  
Less than an Arn later, an external explosion rocked Talyn.  
  
"Report!" Crais commanded as he picked himself up off the floor.  
  
Talyn was in pain, but managed to report a positive status report. A prowler had broken from the advance squad and attacked. The blast did no real damage, just knocked out his stabilizers for a moment, and flash- burned some sensors. Talyn rolled and took the prowler out with a single burst of his aft turret.  
  
K'Tahli came running into command, stopping shy of the cluster. She was pale, shaken  
  
Crais strode up to her.  
  
"Are you injured?" his concern was genuine.  
  
"No, it is not I who is injured. It is Rainne."  
  
Crais' vision blurred and the floor seemed to tilt.  
  
"Is it serious?" he fought for control, but his voice wavered.  
  
"I don't know. When the ship tilted, a storage container broke free from its moorings and pinned her to the floor. I was able to remove the box, but she was pale, bleeding. I don't know how badly."  
  
"Is he with her?" Crais growled. There was no doubt as to "He" was.  
  
"Yes." K'Tahli was not going to volunteer that information, but she would not lie either.  
  
"I will take you to her."  
  
"I know where she is. We are never really apart on Talyn."  
  
As they rushed toward Rainne and Ashan's location, K'Tahli wondered if he and Talyn were aware of the breakthroughs the girls had made combining their powers.  
  
  
  
"Shh. Relax Rainne. Let me see where you are injured."  
  
She winced when Ashan pressed a tender spot on her ribs. His fingers gently traveled her midsection, assessing damage. For Ashan it was a slow journey, he had never touched or tried to heal a human before.  
  
"Ow!" She could not help but cry out. His hands stopped over the cracked ribs. Closing his eyes, he called on all of his training. He wished for K'Tahli's amplification, but she needed to go get Crais. The name caused his concentration to falter, briefly. His need to heal this woman overrode any concerns Ashan may have with his brother right now. He could feel the bones begin to knit beneath his hands. Rainne heard the humming sounds in her mind.  
  
Ashan continued his examination. He found no other internal injuries, some light bruising he soothed. His fingertips tingled, and his eyes went wide. He splayed his fingers over her lower abdomen.  
  
"Rainne, give me your hand." He said through his concentration. "Put your hand on mine. I am going to draw from you." He seemed a little frantic, but she complied.  
  
She knew now why there was an instant rapport between Bialar and K'Tahli. It existed here with Ashan. She looked down at their hands. Her hand began its familiar glow, but somehow the light was softer, it pulsed. It echoed her heartbeat. She noticed Ashan's hand seemed to have a tiny, fragile light. As her light pulsed, the faint light under her hand brightened, and began to pulse very quickly. Ashan's face broke into a relieved grin and he let out the breath he did not realize he was holding.  
  
"What was that?" Rainne whispered, although she did not dare hope.  
  
"Your first communication with your unborn child." Ashan smiled gently down to her.  
  
"You saved its life?"  
  
"No, sweet sister." He kissed her forehead, "You did. I just knew where to direct healing. You healed the child yourself." Rainne squeezed her eyes closed. Emotions washed over her relentless and powerful as tides. She curled her body, reflexively shielding the precious life she and Bialar had created. The life that could have blinked out before she knew it was there.  
  
  
  
"Rainne!" Crais rushed to her side. He saw her tears, the pain etched in her face.  
  
"Can you help her?" He directed the question to Ashan, who had sat back to allow Crais to gather Rainne in his arms.  
  
"She is well. She had a broken rib and some.internal bleeding." Ashan responded. He watched Crais, as he held and soothed Rainne. His touch was as tender as any Ashan had ever seen. Ashan looked back at K'Tahli, who had followed Crais into the passageway.  
  
"I see now, wife, what you tried to show me."  
  
"I am glad."  
  
"He still does not accept me, he never will."  
  
"He will. Give him time."  
  
"I think this may even be too much for time to heal."  
  
"We shall see."  
  
"We should return to Moya."  
  
"Why?" K'Tahli did not want to return to Moya. She did not want to leave her friends.  
  
"They have much to discuss. He needs time. I need time." K'Tahli studied Ashan's face.  
  
"Now it is you who are hiding something." she whispered to him.  
  
"Yes." Ashan smiled in such a way that she knew it was not news to fear. K'Tahli returned his smile, reached up on her tiptoes and kissed him. His arms came around her, pulling her to him. She arched her back and pressed in closer.  
  
"Ferrian." The harsh command broke the reverie. Crais had helped Rainne to her feet. He held her close to his side, even while issuing commands.  
  
"I owe you my gratitude for assisting Rainne." The formality was back. "Whoever you are."  
  
"It was my duty and my pleasure." Ashan returned the nod, ignoring the rejection of his identity. Now was not the time to continue this fight. "But we must return to Moya."  
  
"What if the Peacekeepers return? Moya is unarmed!" Rainne protested. She knew that Moya would be able to starburst, but she wanted to keep her new friend.  
  
"True." Replied K'Tahli, "But Talyn will be close by, correct?" She looked at Crais, "You have no plans to abandon your friends and. allies?"  
  
"Never." He held back a tiny smile. She was spunky, just like his Rainne. "You will be missed." Crais removed a glove and touched the tattoo on K'Tahli's face with his fingertip.  
  
K'Tahli turned, and she and Rainne embraced. No words were needed. When they stepped back, Ashan came forward and held onto Rainne's hands. He leaned in and touched his cheek to hers. He whispered in her ear. She smiled. 


	17. Ch 15 PK Return

The return to Moya gave everyone much needed rest. The prowler that broke formation would not be missed for several solar days. Everyone worked on Moya's systems, shoring the shielding and building booby traps on the access tunnels to foil any Peacekeeper attempt at infiltration. K'Tahli missed Rainne and Crais. She found she even missed Talyn. Though she could not hear him, she always felt another sentient presence there, one that welcomed her. Moya was not as close to K'Tahli's consciousness, but she spoke kindly through Pilot. "Moya assures me Talyn misses you and Ashan." Pilot told K'Tahli. "He says he is staying nearby until the Peacekeepers intentions are clear."  
  
K'Tahli smiled. Talyn had heard her remark to Crais about abandonment. Interesting.  
  
  
  
Unaccustomed to repair work and squirming around access corridors, K'Tahli and Ashan retired early.  
  
Lying in the curve of his shoulder, K'Tahli traced random patterns on his chest with her fingertips.  
  
"K'Tahli?"  
  
"Hmmm?" Her eyes were closed.  
  
"I want to have children with you."  
  
She opened her eyes and stared at him. He had never wanted children of his own. He had always said that there were enough abandoned children in the world that needed care. She loved him enough to put her own desires on hold. She was not even sure she could have children. Often children of radically mixed heritage like K'Tahli's could not even have children.  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Yes. I want the best of each of us to go forward. I want them to know the bonds of family. I want to know that what we feel for one another creates life."  
  
Her happiness was total. She could not answer. She slid her leg over his and straddled him.  
  
"Can we start now?"  
  
The sound of his laughter was stifled by her kiss.  
  
  
  
On Talyn  
  
Crais could tell by the deep and even breathing that Rainne slept soundly. Tonight, nightmares would not plague her.  
  
His exhaustion was no match for the thoughts circling his mind. He considered the story they told him.a brother, a baby after he and Tauvo were taken. Ashan's eyes glittered like Tauvo's had, when he was up to mischief. Where had that memory come from?  
  
Crais bunched his fists at his side. Rainne sighed in her sleep, nestled in closer to his chest.  
  
What if it were true?  
  
Bialar Crais, wrapping his arms around the most cherished thing in his life, silently cried in the darkness.  
  
  
  
The Peacekeepers arrived a solar day later. D'Argo and John were finding having a few former Peacekeepers on hand was very handy for counter strategy planning.  
  
Crais had come over to Moya to help plan the counterattack. If he trusted anyone to protect Rainne, it was Talyn.  
  
"I have been constructing a modification of the biomolecular harmonics within Talyn's inner hulls." Crais began, "It disrupts his energy signature. The Peacekeepers will be unable to identify Talyn as a threat until it is too late."  
  
"Can you modify the outer hull too? The polarity shift may even polarize the electromagnetic field differential." Crichton offered. Crais looked at him with a new respect.  
  
"If we get the shift at a perpendicular phase between hulls." Crichton was furiously scribbling on the surface of the table, "Kawabunga!! Even the Romulans can't see us."  
  
D'Argo looked perplexed.  
  
"Romulans?"  
  
"Human thing, kind of." Crichton said  
  
"A Cloaking mechanism." Crais studied John's notes. Some of the mathematical symbols were different, but his idea was sound. In theory. The biological component was puzzling.  
  
"The ship is biomechaniod. Is this going to cause injury or pain to Talyn?" Crichton asked.  
  
John's words echoed Crais' thinking, and it was disconcerting.  
  
"What about Moya?" D'Argo asked. He was almost as perplexed at the physics being discusses as he was by the dynamics between Crichton and Crais.  
  
"Not possible." Crais snapped. "Her hull is not a dual dynamic like Talyn's. Talyn has an internal hull to house the weapons turrets and things that would normally be toxic to a leviathan."  
  
Crais' tone was condescending. D'Argo had no response, but stepped back a bit. Crichton appreciated Crais' skill as a physicist and a strategist, but not when he was picking on D'Argo.  
  
"Lighten up, Vader. It was just a question." Crichton stared at Crais. Crais acknowledged the meaning and backed down.  
  
"We need to figure out how to maintain the biological integrity." John mused. "Think Ashan would know? He's got to know Biology to be a healer, right?"  
  
Crais was certainly not happy at the suggestion, but it had merit. They had Pilot call him to the strategy room.  
  
John filled him in on the physics of what they were attempting.  
  
"But you need to know how to make these modifications without causing pain to the leviathans, or cellular damage to their living components?" Ashan summed up their misgivings.  
  
"Correct." Crais answered, without looking at him.  
  
"The leviathan cells resonate at a certain pitch, a sub-auditory pitch, even for Luxans. As long as the frequencies are in the shielding range, you can't hurt them, or damage the harmonics in their biological systems. Leviathans are able to adapt the frequencies to withstand a lot more than altered shielding harmonics. K'Tahli and I can keep close tabs on Moya, Rainne and Crais can keep tabs on Talyn. Would you like help with the modifications?" He offered.  
  
Crais wanted a logical reason to refuse Ashan's offer, but found none.  
  
"Thank you. All the hands we can get are appreciated." 


	18. Ch 16 D'Argo Injured

The modulations to Talyn were working as planned. The Peacekeepers all acted like Talyn was not even there. He was able to maneuver so it looked like Moya was returning the gunfire. The confusion from an unarmed ship returning fire would work to their advantage. Talyn's shielding had to be increased as well to contain the highly specialized modifications. Any hits that effectively knocked out the shielding could blow the outer hull, resulting in instant, excruciating death for Talyn. Talyn, himself a soldier, accepted the risk.  
  
The illusion kept the Peacekeeper battalion at bay, but would not continue forever. Talyn continued to eliminate the smaller ships as they ventured closer.  
  
  
  
Moya was required to maneuver as if she were firing weapons. Those aboard were having difficulty maintaining footing. Aeryn and John were clinging to wall sections, trying to advance to command. Each of the decks had to be periodically checked during the battle. The phase modifications had not been able to render Moya cloaked, but they were able to mask the power to the shields, making her appear weak and unprotected fully in spots.  
  
"Prowler pilots are trained to target the weak areas on a vessel, enabling the commandos to board," Aeryn had explained, "Reversing the strength signatures of the shielding will direct the prowler fire to the areas that are actually the strongest."  
  
Another blast and roll sent John stumbling suddenly to the other side of the passageway. He slammed into the wall.  
  
"Too bad we couldn't modulate some padding for in here. I haven't felt this beat up since I played football for U.N.C.," he smiled crookedly at the memory, "I was a tight end."  
  
Aeryn glanced down, appreciatively at Crichton's backside.  
  
"Your tight end seems to be in perfect working order." She replied, as the next wave of weapons fire rocked Moya to her side. Aeryn was thrown to the floor near Crichton's feet. He helped her back up and they continued the checking of the amplification modules. Crichton allowed himself time for a silly grin.  
  
  
  
D'Argo was checking the areas in the lower decks where the shielding was actually strongest, so the weapon's fire was most concentrated. D'Argo had been in battles plenty, and was surefooted as he moved from station to station checking the polarity modifications.  
  
"Pilot. Aft cargo section 9C has a decline in power. Can you isolate and increase it to rephase?"  
  
"In a moment, D'Argo. I am reading fluctuations in central atmospherics that I need to address.  
  
"I'll fix it myself." D'Argo growled. He was not incompetent, and he was still bristling from Crais' insinuations. He tore the access panel off and began the modulations. At the precise moment D'Argo had his hands on the stabilizer, a pulse burst struck the hull. The energy of the pulse would normally have been dispersed across the shielding, but the modulations never intended a pulse to reach the actual hull surface. The reversed polarizations caused the shielding to concentrate the energy flow into a broad beam rather than disperse it. The beam arced through the hull into D'Argo.  
  
Simultaneously Moya and D'Argo howled in pain. Pilot was able to redirect enough energy to the area to block off the hull breach caused by the beam.  
  
Crais witnessed the event through Talyn.  
  
"Do not lower your shielding Talyn!" Talyn was agitated at his mother's pain, but maintained his battle focus. His link to the Captain was strong and a comfort to him, to be able to draw on the battle experience was invaluable. Talyn's first instinct was to lower the modulated shielding to allow him to fire his weaponry more efficiently, thus eliminating the threat to his family.  
  
"I can assist Pilot in helping Moya. It is up to you to protect Rainne and K'Tahli and to destroy the prowlers so we can destroy the transport. You can do this, Talyn. You have learned well. You are strong enough."  
  
Talyn turned and rolled, firing in several directions at once. The prowlers, sensing that they had scored a significant blow, were renewing their efforts. Crais' face showed his concern at the multidirectional firing sequence so close to Moya.  
  
"Crais buddy" John's tone was in direct conflict to his friendly choice of terminology, "Did you tell junior to start shooting at us? Was that part of your original plan? Is that why you came here?" John was advancing on Crais' position. Crais was in a familiar stance, head cocked as if listening to an internal voice.  
  
"Wait!" Ashan put his hand on Crichton's arm to restrain him.  
  
Crais seemed to smile proudly for a moment. Talyn continued his weapons fire.  
  
"He's done something to his weaponry, hasn't he?" Ashan guessed from the look on Crais' face. Unlike John, Ashan did not have three cycles of first hand reason to suspect Crais' motives.  
  
"He was with us, through your link, in our strategy room." Ashan continued, smiling as it dawned on him. Not having spent as much time on Talyn, Ashan hadn't had time to appreciate the multiple talents of the growing Leviathan.  
  
"That is correct. The beams are harmless to Moya. Talyn was in fact listening to our shield modifications and changing his weapon sequences." Crais replied. "Brilliant Talyn!"  
  
Crais listened again for a moment. Talyn proudly announced he had been watching Rainne and K'Tahli work together on their own power and control issues, and he learned a great deal from their solution. He had drawn upon the hand of friendship to use Crais' scientific knowledge and his own vast powerful weapons. If K'Tahli and Rainne could discover a way to use Rainne's own potent weapon for a non-destructive purpose, then so could Talyn.  
  
Crais was momentarily stunned. His pride at the ingenuity of Talyn was surpassed by the knowledge that Rainne had forever changed the trajectory of more than just his life. She had freed Talyn to be more than just a warship, bred to kill like any Peacekeeper. So intense was the realization, Crais let down his guard for a moment. He returned Ashan's smile.  
  
"Pilot!" Aeryn called, "How is Moya?"  
  
"She is in pain, but stable. The energy beam has left a puncture in her hulls. I have sent DRD's to repair it. I cannot raise D'Argo on the comm. He was nearest to the blast site."  
  
"On my way." Aeryn raced down the passageway, "Send Ashan, D'Argo may be injured."  
  
She had no idea how true her words would prove to be.  
  
  
  
Ashan rounded the corner in the passageway and saw D'Argo writhing in pain on the floor. Residual phase pulse energy arced from his prone body to the various metal components in the passage, causing his agony to increase.  
  
Ashan ran to the Luxan, crouched beside him. His pulses were erratic. Their phase modifications were made with leviathan physiology in mind, not Luxan. The pulses were stopping and starting his hearts at random intervals. The pain was excruciating. He howled in pain. Ashan tried to heal the damage the pulses had done. The lungs were undamaged, but there was swelling from phase burned tissue in the bronchial passages. Ashan tried to concentrate to renew the seared flesh.  
  
A residual pulse leapt from the Luxan's body and struck Ashan's hands. He leapt back in pain. His hands were burned, but not badly enough to stop him. The scattered pulses had randomly destroyed synaptic pathways in D'Argo's brain. He was partly conscious. In a moment of lucidity he grabbed Ashan's arm.  
  
"Please." he began. His eyes rolled back in his head, and whatever he had planned to say was lost in the viscous roar of Luxan rage. The damaged pathways in his brain that control the rage were gone. His head thrashed from side to side and his hands clawed at the air. Ashan tried to maintain the contact required to heal the damage, but the Luxan could not be held still.  
  
"Crais!" Ashan called over his comm. "I need K'Tahli. I cannot heal him alone, the damage is too great. She channels power to me. It may be D'Argo's only chance at survival."  
  
Crais heard the request, and hesitated relaying the order to Talyn. He could hear the Luxan howling in the intermittent throes of rage. Ashan would not risk K'Tahli to save the Luxan, would he? Crais decided in the same instant that he would not.  
  
"The request has been made. Talyn assures me that she is on her way."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
  
  
Ashan worked tirelessly on the D'Argo. The rage had momentarily abated and he was still as death. The damage to his body was severe, Ashan was surprised he had lived this long.  
  
"Ashan." D'Argo forced out the words, "Let me alone. It is honorable for a warrior to die alone." He gnashed his teeth, his face a mask of pure pain as the pulses ripped through his body. Ashan was not able to stop the pulses from robbing the flesh of its energy and it was indeed killing the Luxan.  
  
"I am afraid I cannot comply. I am dedicated to healing. I can not let you alone while there is life in you."  
  
"THEN I SHALL TAKE YOUR LIFE!" D'Argo bellowed. He tried to lunge at Ashan's throat, but his motor functions were nearly gone.  
  
  
  
K'Tahli rushed off the transport and ran to the passageway where Ashan was working on D'Argo. She hurried to Ashan's side and knelt beside him. The familiar tingle surrounded her and she heard Ashan's breathing slow. The amplification of his gift of healing was calming to them both, a vital side effect in battle situations.  
  
They fought the damage to his system side by side for a quarter of an arn.  
  
"We are losing him." Ashan ground from between clenched teeth.  
  
K'Tahli, not breaking her bond with Ashan, called out to Rainne with her mind.  
  
"Rainne? Could you return to Moya? I need your help."  
  
"I am still here. Talyn needed to execute a flank attack and thought it safe I wait until he came back to the docking bay side to retrieve me. Why?" Rainne knew that D'Argo was hurt, and hurt badly. Perhaps K'Tahli was offering her the opportunity to make peace with D'Argo before he died. She quickened her steps.  
  
"No, he is not dead but he is close to it. The phase modification has given the energy inside him a renewing pulse. The pulse is damaging the areas we just finished healing. I think the only one who has the energy needed to knock this pulse out of the killing phase is you."  
  
Rainne was on the verge of agreeing when she came around the corner and saw D'Argo. The rages had begun anew and he was bellowing incoherently about death and blood. The vision brought her to a terrified halt. The pain and memory of his rage was very fresh. She was unable to move. D'Argo's arms came up and his hands encircled K'Tahli's throat.  
  
The new threat galvanized Rainne. She rushed forward. D'Argo was too weak, and his arms fell. K'Tahli stumbled back..  
  
"Rainne!"  
  
Rainne picked her up from the floor and assessed the damage to K'Tahli as minimal.  
  
"Rainne, the rages are every few moments. Can you do this?"  
  
Rainne's eyes were haunted, but she nodded.  
  
Pilot's voice broke in.  
  
"How is D'Argo? The most recent hits have started fires in several bays. We need Ashan for the injured."  
  
"D'Argo is not doing well, but he is beyond my help now." Ashan replied, "I will come. Direct me to the appropriate decks." Ashan turned to leave, K'Tahli turned to follow him.  
  
"No." Ashan stopped her from following.  
  
"You'll need me!"  
  
"Rainne will need you more."  
  
K'Tahli was puzzled, Rainne was very strong despite fragile appearances.  
  
"Trust me."  
  
He strode from the room, following Pilot's direction.  
  
  
  
D'Argo had flown into another rage and blood was beginning to stream from the corners of his eyes. Rainne had to close her own for a moment. Whatever her differences with D'Argo, it was not sufficient to wish this agony on him. He stared at her, and seemed to see past her. She was not sure if his mind was gone or his sight, she was not even sure he was aware she was there.  
  
"K'Tahli, come here. I will need you, not to amplify but to protect me."  
  
"You lost me. Protect you?"  
  
"K'Tahli, Ashan left you here with me because he discovered." she trailed off.  
  
Rainne had realized it, but had not spoken it aloud. She would have preferred to tell Crais first, but she needed K'Tahli to know so she knew why Rainne needed her.  
  
"I am going to have a child, K'Tahli. I am carrying Bialar's child. Ashan discovered this when he healed my injury, which is why he asked you to assist me. I don't have the strength to do this alone and shield the precious life inside me."  
  
K'Tahli was stunned. She had sensed something.different, but she chalked it up to Rainne's humanity. There was an echo to her spirit, the baby explained that.  
  
"My niece or nephew! Oh, Rainne that is wonderful. You have not had a chance to tell Crais yet, have you?"  
  
"Not yet. I hope we all live to see the end of this solar day, so that I will have that opportunity."  
  
The reminder of the specter hanging over them all sobered the moment. They clasped hands over D'Argo's inert form. They linked minds, as they had practiced on Talyn. Rainne sought out the rogue pulse wrecking havoc inside D'Argo. She located and isolated the phase. The pulse writhed, seemed sentient in its attempt to escape the hot glow in Rainne's hands. The power built in her hands, crackling the air around the two women. Suddenly Rainne arched her back and gasped. Her hands had matched and reversed the pulse, causing it to shoot back up Rainne's arms. K'Tahli pulled at the flash, creating a circle between the two women. They released their link, the pulse burst into the air and dissipated.  
  
Their work was not over. The damage to D'Argo was extensive. The pulse release was not unlike what they had practiced.  
  
"We need Ashan back here." Rainne said, panicky.  
  
"Rainne, he's up on the other decks with injuries from the fire. It is you and I. I know the procedures, but you are the one with the healing ability. We have to try."  
  
"But what if I can't?"  
  
"Rainne, he is microts from death now. You are his hope for life."  
  
"No. You and I are his hope for life." She extended her hands to K'Tahli. They linked one more time, to attempt to heal the damage to the body of a noble warrior. 


	19. Ch 17 Crichton Injured

"Pilot! Where is Crichton?" Aeryn had been working with him on the phase modulations. He had gone back to a storage bay for a different tool, and had not yet returned. "Aeryn, I can not locate Crichton by his com frequency. The fires have damaged sensors and the DRD's are occupied with battle damage. Moya is doing all she can to contain the fires."  
  
Aeryn felt a deep unease at the news. She had several stations to check, she had to put the fears out of her mind. She called on a deep training she had once abandoned, shut down her emotions and returned to work.  
  
  
  
In the lower aft storage bay, the fires were rapidly burning out of control. Moya was unable to extinguish the flames, the depressurization hatch had been damaged in the original blast. John was pounding the flames and making progress. He did not realizing the flames were advancing around behind him, sealing him in the bay. John was rapidly becoming exhausted, his breathing was difficult. The heat was intense, his clothing was beginning to smolder.  
  
"Always thought I was hot stuff." John quipped to himself. He was going to die in here. He knew it. But he could keep Moya and her crew safe. He reached in his pocket and switched on his voice recorder. He grabbed another tarp sheet and began to beat the flames anew.  
  
"Dad." He spoke as he pounded the flames. "I am in my last fight. I have logged three years with you, and I wanted to thank you for listening." John paused, pounding the flames relentlessly. "But dad, the last of this tape is for Aeryn Sun. You would have loved her Dad." his voice broke. Smoke and pain made his voice rough. "Because I loved her, Dad. So Aeryn, please.know that I loved you. Your strength, your mind, the fearlessness that came from your heart, not the Peacekeeper training." he stopped beating the flames and fell to his knees, "GOD! ARE YOU OUT HERE?"  
  
The flames had burned his hair and brows. His corneas were being seared now. The wasted time he played cat and mouse with Aeryn.he cursed at the frustration. He was beyond pain now.  
  
"Dead man walking!" John cackled to himself. He couldn't feel his hands; he couldn't see the bone where the flesh had gone.  
  
"God, Aeryn.I said I loved you, but I lied. I forget who sang it, but he must have met you. I lied, because there is no way that what I felt for you was love. It was poetry. it was music.it was madness. it was light..why didn't I say this before?"  
  
John's lungs gave out. He made one last weak swing at the crackling flames, and fell into the fire.  
  
  
  
The DRD's finally got the depressurization hatch repaired and Moya was able to extinguish the flames. Ashan and Bialar had come to the bay where Crichton was engulfed in flames.  
  
"I will go in and get Crichton. Will you be able to heal burns of this magnitude in a human?" Crais addressed Ashan.  
  
"I will go to him. I can heal him there."  
  
"The flames are gone, Sebacean, but the heat will render you useless before you can heal Crichton. Nobility is a short step away from folly. Think!" He spat the last word.  
  
Ashan was not offended. He had seen the fervor the Captain had shown fighting alongside this crew. Crais was concerned, and concern made him harsh and formal.  
  
"Then we both go. Two will be faster, the heat will have insufficient time to do damage." Ashan suggested. Crais nodded. They picked their way through the smoking debris. Crichton was hardly breathing and he was delirious. The two men lifted him and dragged him toward the passageway.  
  
"He is still alive, barely." Ashan closed his eyes. He wanted to begin even as they were moving him. Ashan felt the now familiar human physiology begin to move, regenerate under his care. Crichton's breathing sounded a bit better. The heat was uncomfortable, and while healing, he couldn't fight off the effects.  
  
Moya suddenly lurched to one side. Ashan, Crais and John were thrown to the floor. Ashan gasped. He had landed on something sharp. Ashan did not remove his hands from John. Crais looked sharply at Ashan.  
  
"Are you injured?"  
  
"A cut, nothing more. Proceed." Ashan locked his jaw. It was more than a cut, he knew, but they had to get out to the passage so Moya could seal off the bay and dissipate the heat. They moved to the passageway and laid John on the floor.  
  
"Crais, I must retrieve his recorder. He requested it." Ashan turned on his heel and went back into the bay. He found the recorder. He slipped it into a pocket and his hand touched the large, wet stain on his jacket. Something had punctured his midsection, clean through, when they fell. He shook his head to clear it. Crichton's injuries surpassed his own. He got up and rushed back out to the passageway. He nearly collided with Aeryn.  
  
  
  
"John!" Aeryn ran down the passageway, seeing Crais crouching beside the hideously burned Crichton. She stopped a short way from his body, unable to proceed. Ashan stopped her from advancing.  
  
"Aeryn." He shook her out of her reverie.  
  
"Is he..?"  
  
"He is alive Aeryn, I need to get to him. You need to find K'Tahli and Rainne, bring them here. I need their assistance." He pressed the recorder into her hands. She still didn't move.  
  
"Aeryn! Now!" Ashan's tone was pure Crais. Aeryn snapped out of her horrified stupor and ran down the hallway in search of K'Tahli.  
  
While Ashan was talking to Aeryn, Crais had lifted John to ease the difficult respiration.  
  
John searched with sightless eyes for the source of the arms supporting him. He put his hand up to Crais' face. The fingers managed to find the familiar cut pattern of his goatee.  
  
"Aeryn. You need a shave." Crichton gave a small laugh that sent him into painful coughing spasms.  
  
"Crais, Crais bo bais, bonanna banna bo bais."  
  
"Crichton, be still. Save your strength. "  
  
" Oh yeah. I am a weak, pathetic inferior being." He coughed again. "Crais, you promised that I would die in your hands. It looks like you will be getting your wish."  
  
"Be still Human." Crais reverted to what once had been an insult. The extent of injuries was a frightening intrusion of mortality that someday would claim them all.  
  
Crais was shaken, but would not allow John to hear it in his voice. "You will not die this day."  
  
Ashan was approaching.  
  
"Ah, yes, your brother can heal."  
  
"He is NOT my brother." Crais clenched his jaw.  
  
"Crais. Do not piss away this chance. Somebody's God is giving you a big fat box of second chances with a red bow and shiny paper." Crichton had to stop and catch a ragged breath, "You might be a maniac, but don't be stupid too."  
  
Crichton passed out.  
  
Ashan knelt down beside the unconscious man. He began the slow healing process, slower still because of his own injury. Crais watched, powerless to assist, fascinated by the process. He was unwilling to consider John's words, but also unable to ignore them.  
  
K'Tahli came around the passageway with Rainne. Crais was aware that Rainne was on Moya, but the sight of her in the middle of this battle was frightening. He held out his arms and she rushed into the embrace. K'Tahli knelt down by Ashan, to aid in the healing of the human.  
  
  
  
"C'thha, where did Aeryn go?" Crais asked Rainne quietly as he held her.  
  
"She could not return. She went to the solar terrace. Moya reported the battle was concluded. She is convinced John is dead or dying." Rainne replied.  
  
"I must go to her." Crais pulled on his gloves. Rainne held him for a moment longer, before he strode from the room.  
  
  
  
On the terrace, Aeryn had the recorder in her hands.  
  
"Aeryn?"  
  
She hung her head, the vista of the stars the only light on the terrace.  
  
"Aeryn?" Crais asked again.  
  
"Tell me." She whispered.  
  
"He is alive, Aeryn. Ashan is working on him now." The name felt foreign on Crais' lips.  
  
She gave a silent, wrenching sob and pitched forward. Crais caught her, she stiffened in his arms, tried to pull away. She was fighting her own emotions, to accept even the simplest embrace she might shatter. He turned her so she faced away from him, pulled her back against his chest like a child. He held her silently for a few moments.  
  
"Did you listen to the tape?" Crais asked quietly.  
  
She didn't answer for a long moment.  
  
"No." She stiffened in his supportive embrace, "I will upon the news of his death."  
  
Crais spun her to face him.  
  
"Aeryn," his voice was husky with emotion, "love is for the living. Let go, woman, let go of your training! It is as cold as the space before you! What can this stoic silent vigil give you? Hot rage and a cold heart.I know, I have held them both close to me!"  
  
She looked at him with vacant eyes. She had fallen in love with John, true. She realized now that she never fully opened herself to it, to shield from the potential for hurt.  
  
"Aeryn!" Crais pleaded with her. "Listen, please."  
  
He took the recorder from her hands and set it on the table. He began the playback and turned to leave.  
  
"Crais." Her voice halted him. She grabbed the recorder and stopped it.  
  
"Stay." She whispered.  
  
She sat on the floor under the stars. Talyn hovered overhead, casting a soft glow over the terrace. Crais sat beside her, careful not to touch her, and resumed the playback.  
  
  
  
"Dad."  
  
John's voice was distant and the roar of the fire was nothing less than pure evil. "I am in my last fight. I have logged three years with you, and I wanted to thank you for listening." Aeryn silently cried. Her face remained impassive, but finally the tears came.  
  
"But dad, the last of this tape is for Aeryn Sun. You would have loved her Dad." his voice broke. Smoke and pain made his voice rough. "Because I loved her, Dad. So Aeryn, please.know that I loved you. Your strength, your mind, the fearlessness that came from your heart, not the Peacekeeper training." they could hear him stop beating the flames and fall to his knees, "GOD! ARE YOU OUT HERE?"  
  
Aeryn reached forward to grab the recorder, Crais grabbed her hand. All they heard was flame and the frantic pounding..then he cursed at the frustration. He was beyond pain now.  
  
"Dead man walking!" John cackled to himself. The sound wrenched at Aeryn, she squeezed her eyes shut. She wrapped her arms against her midsection and began to rock herself, back and forth.  
  
"God, Aeryn.I said I loved you, but I lied. I forget who sang it, but he must have met you. I lied, because there is no way that what I felt for you was love.. It was poetry.. it was music... It was madness.. it was light..why didn't I say this before?"  
  
John's lungs gave out. He made one last weak swing at the crackling flames, and fell into the fire.  
  
Aeryn collapsed into Crais, an eerie, wrenching wail split the darkness as she finally gave in to the tears.  
  
  
  
Ashan and K'Tahli worked on John for several arns. His injuries were extensive. They moved him to a makeshift surgery. K'Tahli knew that Ashan was injured, and more seriously than he was allowing anyone to see. If they worked on him using conventional medical technology and their healing gifts, the process was faster. Healing was not a magical or easy gift. Some injuries, disease and system failures inside the body were beyond their grasp. Human DNA had a wonderfully complex regenerative selection process, and unlocking each system was tiring.  
  
Rather than try to repair the burned corneal tissue, they chose to surgically replace them. Using optical cellular tissues from Moya, they were able to synthesize a bio-elastic polymer that John's body was not rejecting. Ashan rejected the idea of improving John's vision. He had noticed something as he was dealing with these humans, and several of the crossbreed people his work had exposed over the years. They did not have the razor sharp senses that the Peacekeepers had bred, or the Luxans had evolved. But they had adapted by using intuition and instinct. Much of those abilities had atrophied in the so-called "pure" races, the engineered peoples. No, what the Sebaceans may have perceived as impairment might be an impetus to achieve with other means for John.  
  
Ashan's job was to restore Crichton, not impose his own standards upon him.  
  
He glanced over at K'Tahli. He wondered if she ever realized how much medical training she had picked up just by assisting him. He smiled behind his bio-filter mask. He never tired of discovering new things about his wife. He tried to talk her into pursuing medicine, but to no avail. She assisted him because their gifts combined were unique and she would be a fool to deny the benefit it wrought. But she was a student of histories, of peoples. She told him that Crichton told her she dug into what made people "tick." He had gone on to explain that early instruments for measuring time on earth had internal gears that actually made a ticking noise. So to a person, or a race of people, if you studied what they held inside, you found out what it was that made their external manifestations.their "tick." It gave her a deep understanding of what motivated certain peoples, and she could predict behavior, and change it. Healing souls gone down the wrong way was one of the ways she explained herself.  
  
K'Tahli smiled up at him. Her mind was focused on Crichton's, so she was not listening to Ashan's thoughts. They were plain in his eyes though.  
  
John's mind was a jumble of activity, and much of it was focused on the pain. His skin and lungs had been damaged along with his hands and eyes. He had done an unforgettably brave job battling the flames. The storage bay was home to some volatile fluids and oils that if ignited, could have killed the entire crew. If the internal explosion had been great enough, it could have killed Moya as well. Softly she whispered this in John's head. She told John that Aeryn was waiting for him to wake so she could hold him. She told him that his father and his people on earth should have been honored to be counted among his friends. She tried cracking jokes, but she didn't think he got the one about the Hynerian hedgehog.  
  
She gently moved his synaptic relays away from the pain centers as she spoke in his head, she dulled the pain responses where the skin debridement and regeneration was happening. She went into his subconscious and found some old and sweet memories of home, knitting them together for a peaceful dream. This was always her final procedure; to assure the patient alone, in peaceful slumber, did the last phases of healing. Life had a way of being very tenacious, and this human was no different.  
  
Ashan was smoothing the last of the newly pink skin on John's chest. The eyes were covered in a filmy fabric to keep debris from the healing corneal grafts. The lungs were well, and his breathing deep and even. The torn ligaments in his shoulder had re-knit but would need exercise to become flexible and strong again. The burns took the longest, as human skin seemed to have a slow natural regenerative process. Each layer had to be coaxed out of dormancy into a cellular replication sequence that it carried in cellular memory from infancy.  
  
Ashan sat back and slipped off his mask. "He is well." He announced. Rainne had watched the process from its inception, amazed. Crais had come in after spending an arn with Aeryn on the terrace. She had fallen into an exhausted cathartic sleep, so Crais had covered her and left her sleeping. K'Tahli was finishing with the dream to assure that John slept for a full 10 arns. She finally sat back as well.  
  
There was a deep silence in the room for several moments.  
  
"Pilot." Crais addressed pilot, "How is Moya?"  
  
"She is primarily undamaged, minor repairs are underway. She is deeply troubled by the grievous injuries of her crew."  
  
"So are we." From the doorway, Chiana and Jool stood with Stark.  
  
Ashan addressed them and pilot. "John Crichton will survive. He will be his old self in a matter of a day or so."  
  
"D'Argo?" Jool inquired. She was looking hard at Ashan to avoid looking at K'Tahli or Rainne.  
  
Ashan looked over at Rainne and K'Tahli.  
  
"He will also recover." It was Rainne who had spoken. She addressed Jool despite the waves of animosity she felt from the fiery haired Interion. "Perhaps you would care to ask him yourself?" Rainne indicated with a nod that D'Argo had wearily staggered in behind them. Jool ran to embrace him. He was weak, and he looked puzzled. He knew that he had begged Ashan to let him die. He also remembered seeing Ashan walk away.  
  
He remembered the searing pain, flashes of light and sound. Some of it had to be hallucination, because he thought he remembered being back on his home world. D'Argo looked at Rainne. He had seen her as well, or thought he had.  
  
"Thank you, all, for your efforts on my behalf." He indicated to everyone. They understood. K'Tahli had explained to Moya via Pilot essentially what happened, so they knew he'd be disoriented. D'Argo turned and walked from the room. Jool tried to follow; he stopped her with a look. She shot an acid glance at Rainne as if it was her fault in some way and left as well. 


	20. Ch 18 A New Member of the Family

Crais stood; his only concession to weariness was evident in the strain around his eyes. "I believe it is time for us to return to Talyn." "Could you delay your departure for a moment? I need to see Rainne." Ashan was showing the strain more vividly than Crais. His eyes were sunken with strain and fatigue, his hands were shaking. Crais looked at Rainne with questioning eyes.  
  
"I will meet you at the docking bay shortly." Rainne said to Crais. He turned and left with barely a nod to acknowledge his departure. In the hallway he paused. The healer's haggard appearance bothered him. He had found himself watching him, weighing his absurd claim. He had the tenacity and stubbornness that Crais prided himself on possessing. They would have been friends if circumstances had been different. But they were not. Dismissing the misgivings in his mind, he headed for the docking bay.  
  
  
  
"Are you well?" Ashan asked Rainne. He walked up to her and put his hand on her abdomen. The tiny light began to glow and pulse in the rhythm to the new life's heart. Even though she knew what to expect, it thrilled her to see it. He removed his hand. "I wanted to make sure the healing with D'Argo did not harm you two."  
  
Rainne smiled through watery tears.  
  
"We are fine. We are tired and need to go tell this little one's father. But before I go, can I take a look at that little cut you claim is nothing?"  
  
"If you don't let her, I am going to tie you down and do it myself." K'Tahli added.  
  
"Dream come true." He quipped. The pain was still evident on his features though. He had taken off his jacket working on Crichton and the volume of blood had startled K'Tahli. She knew Sebaceans healed well, but they were not omnipotent. He pulled the bloody t-shirt off over his head.  
  
K'Tahli and Rainne looked at each other behind Ashan's back. Something had punctured through his side and come out the front of his body, just under the ribs.  
  
"What happened?" K'Tahli asked him.  
  
"I fell on something sharp when we were carrying John out of the bay. I knew I was cut." Ashan was shocked at the extent of the injury. His body had already begun its healing process. He could not do for himself what he did for others, but he generally healed quickly. This wound was not closing.  
  
"Just dress it, please. The strain of the day must have taken its toll. I will be fine."  
  
"I can finish here Rainne. Go see to your news." K'Tahli's smile replaced her concern for Ashan momentarily. This baby, and the potential joy of it, was another testament to the resiliency to all life. It was too bad that Crais' upbringing was so steeped in racial purity. The girls embraced for a moment, and Rainne turned to leave  
  
"Wait." Ashan's voice stopped her. Rainne turned.  
  
"Crais is a Sebacean, Rainne. They are trained from the cradle that racial purity is vitally important, crucial to survival. That may put a damper on his enthusiasm."  
  
Rainne had not considered that. There were so many things about this strange place that were so different, despite seeming similarities. She thanked Ashan for his warning, but nothing could really dim how she felt. She left the bay to join Crais.  
  
  
  
K'Tahli silently cleaned the burned debris from Ashan's side. She liberally applied a salve to aid the healing and cool the jagged flesh as it healed.  
  
"Why didn't you let me do this earlier?"  
  
"There were others that needed me more, C'thha."  
  
She knew that, but when it was your own family in your care, your training and intelligence were useless. She let the fear and fatigue wash over her and choked back the tears that threatened.  
  
He turned to look at her. "Hey," he put his hand to her face, "I am fine K'Tahli."  
  
"I know." She said in a small voice, managed a smile. "I am allowed to have a moment of weakness when it is you who is injured." She was reassured, and she leaned toward him for a quick kiss. She finished covering the wound and gave him his shirt back.  
  
"Go get some rest. I will sit with Crichton. You can spell me in six arns or so."  
  
Ashan started to protest, but K'Tahli put her fingertips to his lips.  
  
"Shh, love. You need sleep to heal. I don't want Crichton to awaken alone. I am fairly certain he has never experienced an assisted regenerative healing. Or a near-fatal thickness burn either."  
  
"You are the sweetest women I know. I should marry you."  
  
"You did marry me."  
  
"How could I forget that? I must be tired." She gave him a mock punch in the shoulder for his impertinence then held him tight.  
  
"I love you, sweet man, never forget that."  
  
"Never." Briefly they touched foreheads and he walked slowly from the room.  
  
K'Tahli went over to John. He was sleeping peacefully. The bond she felt after she assisted in healing was hard to let go. Ashan had seen it before, and finally understood it. They had gone through some bitter fights, jealous accusations in the early days. They learned from those times. Being inside someone's mind in such a vulnerable state, soothing pain and suffering was intimate, familial and almost maternal.  
  
She found herself humming a tune she had learned as a child. It was her mother who had started her interest in history. She had studied the music and stories passed down through generations of as many races of people as she could. John's memories of his home had made her remember a tune. The people were from an unidentified planet. Their artifacts suggested a place of wild beauty, awash in lush green. Situated on the cliffs of a vast ocean, it was rich with stories of magic. The people were forced to migrate due to a great famine and although spread all over, they maintained a deep love for their home.  
  
She continued to hum softly, and the words from her childhood seeped back. She began to sing softly, as much to herself as to John.  
  
"Silent sleep is calling  
  
I feel so all alone.  
  
How many miles behind me  
  
How many left to go  
  
My last humiliation rests upon the shame I've sown  
  
Will they let me stay, will they turn me away?  
  
Will I be allowed to call this place my own?  
  
Now I long for home.  
  
How I long for home.going home.  
  
They say that once gone, you can't return  
  
Find your heart's path and love, and live  
  
Though you long for home."  
  
She had closed her eyes as the words from her childhood mingled with the memories from John. She opened them to find Crichton staring at her through the filmy pads covering his eyes.  
  
"I am sorry I woke you. I got a little lost there."  
  
"I had heard that angels had wings to go with that kind of voice." He gave her a half smile. He was weary, but he didn't feel any pain. "Did you give me drugs?"  
  
"No, John. Our approach to healing is a little different, but you need to sleep."  
  
"I am alive?"  
  
"Yes!" K'Tahli was surprised at the question. For a moment Crichton had believed he was dead. She must not have dampened the memory of the fire well enough. She removed the filmy dressing from his eyes. The corneas were clear.  
  
"Queen tut! I thought you were an angel."  
  
K'Tahli did not know what an angel was, but the reference was obviously a pleasant one to John so she accepted his statement without asking for elaboration.  
  
"No. I am not an angel. But I am going to have to be the sleep queen. You need rest."  
  
Before he could protest, she put her hands on his face and went into the sleep center in his brain. A gentle nudge and he was once again breathing deep and even.  
  
  
  
"The song was very John Crichton. Where did you learn it?"  
  
K'Tahli spun around to see Aeryn in the doorway. She was uneasy around the former Peacekeeper. Aeryn was a complex woman, but one who guarded herself and her emotions with a meticulous tenacity. That sort of emotional armor was frightening to telepaths who rely heavily on reading people.  
  
Right now though, Aeryn was very open. She looked better for a bit of rest. Perhaps it was as much the rest as the self-discovery that had changed her visage and her demeanor.  
  
"My mother was an amateur historian of eclectic peoples and their spoken heritage. Much of the unrecorded history is in the form of music. She was deposed from her home for loving someone outside her race. She loved that song, because it talked of starting over without losing the sweetness of the longing for home."  
  
Aeryn was unable to meet K'Tahli's eyes when she talked about the racial impurity deportment.  
  
"It was perfect for John."  
  
"It woke him."  
  
"I saw that too." Aeryn shifted uncomfortably.  
  
"You could have come in, spoken with him."  
  
"I am still getting used to the idea that I did not lose him to death."  
  
"Now you are worried you may lose him to your own indecision and uncertainty."  
  
Aeryn's eyes widened in shock.  
  
"The events of the day have left you very open, Aeryn Sun. I am sorry to intrude."  
  
"No, don't apologize. You are correct. It was startling to hear it spoken aloud. May I sit with him?"  
  
"Of course. He should not wake for the night's term. He won't remember much when he does wake. One of the effects of telepathic healing, we dampen the memory of the event that caused the injury. The reliving of a trauma before the body is well healed is not good for recovery. The memories will come back fully, but in a few solar days."  
  
"Thank you. I owe you my own life for saving John Crichton."  
  
K'Tahli nodded and left Aeryn holding John's hand, the soft expression looking both sad and lovely on her face. At that moment she looked nothing like a Peacekeeper.  
  
  
  
Rainne and Crais returned to Talyn, who was extraordinarily pleased to have his crew back. They were fatigued by the fighting and had no plans beyond a quiet meal and rest.  
  
Rainne was preoccupied with trying to figure out a way to tell Crais about the baby. He sensed her preoccupation but attributed it to the strain. Battle was stressful, even for trained combatants. She picked at her food, listlessly.  
  
"I thought I was hungry. I should be."  
  
"You have been through much today, C'thha." Crais responded.  
  
"So have you, and your appetite seems unaffected."  
  
"Today was like any other." He dismissed. Acknowledgement of emotional upheaval was weakness. He knew part of what she referred to was his dealings with Ashan. He refused to give the claims any credence.  
  
Abruptly she got up from the table and ran from the room. She just made it to the bathroom when the food made its way back up. Pale and shaking, she sat on the cool floor. She could hear Crais' footsteps coming to the door. At the same time, Talyn was expressing his concern. She leaned back against the door. She needed a minute.  
  
"Crais, I am all right. I think it is just a reaction to stress."  
  
"Let me in." he demanded.  
  
"Not right now." She answered. She couldn't get her emotions under control. She felt giggly and weepy.  
  
"Talyn! Release this door."  
  
"Belay that order Talyn!" She shouted.  
  
Crais was rocked back on his heels by her countermanding his order. He had slipped back into battle mode easily to be useful today, so this.insubordination enraged him.  
  
"Rainne!" He bellowed at the closed door.  
  
Approximately a half microt after shouting at her, Talyn gave a low whistle, a warning. He was dangerously close to threatening Crais.  
  
"Talyn! Stand Down!" Crais snapped at the young Leviathan. Talyn complied, reluctantly.  
  
"Listen Crais. I am tired, my stomach is upset and I've seen more death and near death than I want to in this lifetime. All I wanted was some quiet time with you, but you've gone all..Peacekeeper on me!"  
  
Crais balled his fists at his side. He was angry, confused and unsure of how to proceed.  
  
"Perhaps I have found the mantle of battle captain difficult to shed this evening. I apologize, deeply." He said, quietly.  
  
She opened the door. "Rainne, can you forgive me?" He asked.  
  
She was powerless to remain angry. She stepped into his arms; he held her close for a long time. Her emotions were still unstable, but the circle of his arms felt perfect.  
  
"Bialar?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Are you happy?" Rainne asked. Had he and Crichton been friends, he would have been able to warn him about pregnant human women. He could have told him that their minds devised questions that no man could ever answer satisfactorily.  
  
"What makes you ask? Are you unhappy? With me, here?"  
  
"I am not unhappy with you, with my life on Talyn. I am actually very happy."  
  
"I don't understand why you ask of my happiness. I am very content to have you here on Talyn with me."  
  
"I have something to tell you." She said, quickly.  
  
Crais was suddenly apprehensive. Was she leaving? Did the soldier still within him repulse her? His expression was grim.  
  
"Don't look at me like that! It is not a bad thing.I don't think."  
  
"Rainne. Tell me." He prompted. This indecisive behavior was out of character for her.  
  
"We are going to have a baby."  
  
Crais went still. He frowned; he then quickly masked his features. She saw the familiar shuttering and her heart lurched.  
  
"Are you sure?" He asked.  
  
"Yes. I am most assuredly pregnant."  
  
"It is my child?"  
  
The sound of her open hand cracked on his cheek. The angry red imprint of her palm rose on his face.  
  
"How dare you ask! I have been with no one but you! You KNOW that!"  
  
"That you remember."  
  
That statement confused Rainne. She knew a little about pregnancy from the computer files she had accessed before she escaped her earthen existence. She knew nothing about Sebacean gestation. The only remote comfort was that his tone was not accusing.  
  
"I am not sure, but I think human beings carry children a little different than Sebaceans. I would have to ask Crichton."  
  
"Tell no one!" Crais snapped.  
  
"Why not?" this was not going at all as she had hoped or even expected.  
  
Crais did not want to try to explain his reluctance. She would not understand how deep the cross breeding taboo ran in his culture.  
  
"You are ashamed of me! I am good enough to recreate with but not to have mixed blood children with?" Her hands began their familiar burning sensation. "I think you had best step aside, Captain. I am returning to Moya." Her determination turned steely.  
  
"No! Please!" Talyn begged.  
  
"Talyn, I need time to think."  
  
"About our baby? Or us?"  
  
Rainne closed her eyes and felt the sweet acceptance wash over her. Sometimes Talyn was every inch the gunship. But times like these, his sentience and innocence was nothing short of beautiful. The burning in her hands cooled. Marginally the anger cooled as well, but she still needed a little time away.  
  
"Rainne. I can explain to the captain that the child carries his genetic signature."  
  
"Talyn, he did not believe you about Ashan."  
  
"He does. He does not want to."  
  
Crais stood and watched as she put her hands on the wall of the corridor. He realized that she was communicating with Talyn, and Talyn was not allowing him to hear.  
  
"I made an error, Rainne. I once fabricated information to try and influence his decision. He has the right to doubt me."  
  
"Is this fabricated to sway me?"  
  
"Fair enough question. No, I learned from the unforeseen consequences of deception with the captain. I no longer utilize fabrication."  
  
"I have to go to Moya. Contact her if you need me."  
  
She felt bolstered by Talyn's acceptance, but still needed to be away.  
  
"Take me to Moya."  
  
The coldness and the underlying desperation gave no room for noncompliance.  
  
Crais turned on his heel and strode into the neural cluster. 


	21. Ch 19 Sweet Acceptance

On Moya Pilot and Moya were the only ones awake when Talyn contacted them. The battle had taken a toll on everyone. Pilot thought it best to wake K'Tahli when Rainne arrived.  
  
One look at the tear-stained face told K'Tahli that the conversation about the baby did not go well.  
  
"I think things will look better after you have had some sleep. Pregnancy takes a lot out of the body, doesn't matter where you come from."  
  
K'Tahli read her well. She did not want to discuss it at all, with anyone right now. She did want to rest. Angry and sad as she was, she missed Bialar.  
  
  
  
On Talyn  
  
Crais stood hands behind his back. He and Talyn discussed the aspects of the battle; the modifications Crais planned for when the Leviathan had grown a bit more. Everything but Rainne.  
  
"Talyn. Why did you defy me earlier?"  
  
Talyn knew what he meant. The refusal to open the door, the blocking of the link when Talyn spoke to Rainne.  
  
"I am not certain. I was feeling unwell. I felt her unease very sharply."  
  
Talyn was linked very closely to Rainne and she had acted so very out of character.  
  
"May I address a query?" Talyn asked Crais.  
  
"Granted."  
  
"Am I unacceptable to you because I am of mixed breed?"  
  
Talyn's question hit him squarely in the center of his soul. Talyn had been designed to take the finer of two components to create something better.  
  
"Perhaps our child can make the same claim?" Talyn asked, responding to Crais' thinking.  
  
The use of the possessive regarding the child was not lost on Crais. He did not want to deal with it.  
  
"Privacy mode, please Talyn. Wake me in 6 Arns." Crais spoke the last command. Talyn found it best to do as Crais commanded.  
  
  
  
On Moya  
  
The following day, Rainne kept to herself. She explored Moya, finding solace in having her thoughts to herself for a while. Life was resuming some sense of normality. She found a small room that had a cache of trinkets. She remembered hearing something about a deposed Hynerian Dominar being aboard at one time. Perhaps it was his stash of possessions. Another chamber had some of the loveliest dried flowers and plants, pressed between dry white sheets of a thinly sliced wood. There were entries there that explained the uses and origins. It must have been a pursuit of the Delvian the crew had once had. K'Tahli would be interested in this. She tucked it under her arm and continued to walk. She munched on some dried Khalish sun berries. Named for their bright yellow color and fine patterned filament, they were sweet and tangy when dried. They also settled the stomach nicely.  
  
"Bless you, Ashan." He had given her the berries. He told her to please not tell his sweet wife. She became a lot less sweet when her stash of dried sun berries was raided.  
  
"Do you want to know something, little one?" She placed her hand on her still flat lower stomach.  
  
"I hope your uncle Ashan and your father can get things straightened out between them. Ashan will be a good uncle. He's been a good friend to your mommy." She smiled at her own folly. The word mommy had almost as sweet a flavor on her tongue as the berries.  
  
"Ah, but your daddy is a handful, sweet baby. He is not always easy to love. His convictions and strong beliefs are a dual-edged qualta. One side is that his character makes me feel safe; he will not suddenly change his mind and fly away. But on the other side.those convictions, if in error, are equally hard to break."  
  
Her stomach rumbled, and it was not a reply from the baby. She needed to find her way back and get some more sustaining nutrition. She trailed her fingers along Moya's walls as she wandered back to the common areas.  
  
  
  
"Hello John."  
  
John turned and saw Ashan come in. Ashan smiled a bit at how Crichton looked. He was healing nicely. When he woke from his slumber cycle, Aeryn had been with him. His memories had not come out of the numbing phase yet, so he did not remember making the tape, or asking Ashan to retrieve it. He did know that Aeryn seemed different, more open, more committed. She had gone to assist Pilot for a while.  
  
"Let me guess. I look strong enough to pull the ears off a gundark."  
  
Ashan smiled, he was getting used to Crichton's enigmatic phrases.  
  
"I told you this morning I would come by to check on you."  
  
"Where is Florence Nightingale?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Sorry. She was a really hot nurse back home."  
  
"K'Tahli? She is checking on D'Argo."  
  
"How is he?"  
  
"He is well. Luxans have a dual heart circulatory system. That may have been what enabled them to save him."  
  
"Them?"  
  
"Rainne and K'Tahli were the ones working on him."  
  
"Where were you?"  
  
"Up here with you and Crais."  
  
"Crais? You two are playing nice now?"  
  
"There are still unresolved issues between us."  
  
"Issues? Hell yes that boy has issues. I take it he was a little put out by your announcement that you were the prodigal son so to speak? The long lost brother?"  
  
"Did he tell you he was my brother?"  
  
"Nah. I got that tidbit out of your little woman when she drove a mental pickup truck through the plate glass of my psyche for having a dirty mind."  
  
Ashan just nodded sagely, not having a clue what John meant.  
  
"K'Tahli has her moments." John laughed at the vast understatement. Some things were the same everywhere. Women were not meant to be understood.  
  
  
  
Rainne walked into the chamber where the two men were talking.  
  
"Hey, Stormy, what brings you here? Did you miss me?"  
  
She walked over to John and gave him a gentle hug.  
  
"I wanted to see how you were doing."  
  
"Better than my painted friend here. If he gets any paler he could put Bela Lagosi out of a job."  
  
Ashan did look pale. He smiled sheepishly and confessed he had worked harder in the last 24 arns than he had in a long time.  
  
"I will take my leave so you can visit."  
  
"Ashan, wait. I'd really like to talk to you both."  
  
"Hey, Stormy, you ok?"  
  
She looked over at Ashan, then back at John.  
  
"I am fine. I needed to talk to a human."  
  
Ashan looked a little perplexed, but stayed silent. Crichton patted the cushion next to him.  
  
"Sit a spell and tell papa Crichton about it."  
  
At the word papa, Rainne's eyes filled with tears.  
  
"Hey.no waterworks in act one!! Tell me what's wrong first. These guys dosed me with something so if I have problems, I sure don't remember them right now. So tell me yours."  
  
His irreverent innocent banter was a slave to her frayed nerves. She managed a watery grin.  
  
"I am pregnant." She announced.  
  
"It's not mine is it?" Crichton asked with mock severity. She drew back to give him a mock punch, then remembered his injuries. He pulled her in close and hugged her for a moment.  
  
"Stormy, that is wonderful news. How is Captain Dad taking it? Do Sebaceans smoke cigars?"  
  
Rainne cast her eyes down.  
  
"What? He wasn't happy?" Crichton seemed shocked by the possibility.  
  
It was Ashan who spoke, while Rainne struggled with her emotions.  
  
"Sebaceans are drilled with the ideal of racial purity from birth. It is very hard for him to get past, I would think. Also, Sebaceans can carry an embryo for up to seven cycles before having it released to grow to term. Did he ask if he was the father?"  
  
Both John and Rainne looked hard at Ashan.  
  
"Yes, he did. I didn't know. I had read about human pregnancy when I was on the station. I had no idea about Sebaceans cycles."  
  
"So you freaked out on him and then went and tossed your cookies?" Crichton asked.  
  
"Basically, yes." She smiled wanly at the memory.  
  
"I remember when my buddy's wife was pregnant.she went all goofy for a while. I guess the hormones go a little wacky as your body gets used to the new role it is playing."  
  
"I was not supposed to tell you."  
  
"Yeah. I can see Crais asking you to keep it from me. He and I are not exactly ready to go pick out china patterns together."  
  
"I am glad I did. I am glad I came. I needed time, and a little human touch."  
  
"Anytime, Stormy."  
  
Rainne stood up to leave. She felt dizzy suddenly, and swayed. Ashan caught her, and steadied her.  
  
"I need to eat something."  
  
"Let me check the baby to be sure."  
  
He put his hand on her belly. John watched, dumbfounded as the tiny light of the baby's heartbeat appeared.  
  
"Thank you." Rainne said to Ashan. She placed her fingertips on his face as she had seen K'Tahli do. He smiled and touched his forehead to hers.  
  
"You are welcome, sweet sister."  
  
They stood that way a moment, shoring strength from a rich bond of friendship.  
  
This was the image that assailed Crais when he strode into the room.  
  
He pulled Ashan away from Rainne and shoved him backward. Ashan staggered and fell into the sectional seating unit John had been seated on.  
  
"No!" Rainne had known he would return for her. She understood his reaction a little better, and they needed to talk.  
  
"Please.take me home to Talyn with you. We need to talk."  
  
Crais was no longer angry with her. He was frustrated by her easy acceptance of Ashan.  
  
He took her hand and they left the room. 


	22. Ch 20 Nerve Damage

Ashan was pale. He had claimed to be tired earlier, but this seemed to be more than tired. "Hey, are you ok? Crais packs a wallop if he catches you off guard, eh? Been there, done that."  
  
Ashan coughed, wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. He looked at his hand and saw the blood. Trying to hide it from John, he quickly wiped it off on a rag.  
  
"I am fine. Tired." He coughed again, this time the blood hit the floor.  
  
"You are not fine. I have seen this before. Calling this fine is like calling Pamela Anderson "Cute." No way Jose. Sit down."  
  
Crichton sat him on the sectional.  
  
"Pilot!"  
  
"Good to hear your charming summons, Crichton. How are you feeling?"  
  
"Forget me; get Aeryn and K'Tahli down here ASAP."  
  
"ASAP?" Pilot asked  
  
"NOW DAMMIT, STAT, ASAP, ON THE DOUBLE! Whatever passes for get off your frelling eema in this side of the universe!"  
  
"As you wish Crichton. Glad to see you are feeling like your old self again."  
  
  
  
"You knew." Crichton went back to Ashan. "Are all of you Sebaceans this eager to buy the farm?"  
  
"I knew a few arns ago. I am not eager to die," John's bizarre phrasing could not mask his intended meaning, "but if you recognize the symptoms, you know the only cure. We just narrowly escaped Peacekeeper occupation. We are not up to another battle or a search to find a compatible Sebacean. I tested Aeryn, she's not a match."  
  
"Pardon me for stating the obvious but how about Crais? He's got to be a match!"  
  
"The chances of him being a match are excellent because we are brothers. But he won't accept the relationship. You saw him in here."  
  
"Yeah, but you were making googly eyes with his lady friend. I might have decked you too."  
  
"He knows my relationship with Rainne is not impure. No, it is me he is angry about. Testing for graft donorship would be irrefutable proof. He's too much a scientist to maintain denial then. If I rob him of his denial, he will be forced to face our relationship. I suspect you don't want to force him into anything."  
  
"But if you don't even ask him, in less than 2 solar days you rob him of his only living brother."  
  
  
  
Aeryn made it into the room before K'Tahli, she had been nearby working with the DRD's on inspecting the hull shielding following the battle.  
  
"John? What's wrong? Pilot said you were concerned."  
  
"I am fine. Aeryn, that nerve thing? Ashan's seems damaged."  
  
She glanced over at Ashan who was pale and wan, but looked fine otherwise.  
  
"What makes Crichton think you have damaged your paraphoral nerve?"  
  
  
  
It was mid-sentence that K'Tahli came in. She rushed over to Ashan who was still sitting on the sectional.  
  
"Ashan? Is it true? The nerve was hit when you fell, wasn't it?"  
  
"I wasn't sure," he began, smoothing a stray black strand from her face. "But a few arns ago I began coughing some blood. It is early yet."  
  
"When were you going to tell me?" the quaver in her voice showed that her anger was born of fear. Fear of losing him.  
  
"Right after I checked in on Crichton. I would never hide anything this important from you." He had his hand on her face still, she leaned her cheek on his hand.  
  
"We have to get to Talyn." K'Tahli stood up.  
  
"Why?" John and Aeryn both asked  
  
"Crais would be a match." K'Tahli explained.  
  
"I will not allow it." Ashan spoke with an obstinate finality.  
  
"Why would Crais be a match? " Aeryn asked.  
  
John looked at Ashan as if asking permission to tell her.  
  
"Come on," John draped his arm around Aeryn shoulders, "I have a great yarn to tell you. Let's leave these two to chat."  
  
  
  
The silence in the chamber reverberated with temper. Two strong wills faced off like fighters.  
  
"K'Tahli, he has already made his position clear. Fighting him on this issue will only cause us both continued pain."  
  
"Your death would cause me pain!" She shot back at him.  
  
"We need to seek another donor."  
  
"Why? He is right here, the procedure is painless.please ask him!"  
  
Ashan grabbed both of her hands in his to still her angry pacing. "K'Tahli. Normally I am powerless to deny you anything. I can give you anything but that."  
  
"Can you give me the life of my husband?" she asked quietly.  
  
He gathered her close and held her. She was torn between wanting the comfort and holding on to her anger. He rested his face on her hair, closed his eyes. The lights had reflected an acid green off her hair, indicating the deep sadness.  
  
"Ashan," she pulled back to look at the deep, expressive eyes she had loved forever, "I don't understand. But I don't want to fight. Please reconsider." When he began to voice another vehement denial, she put her hand to his lips. "No. I can't bear to hear you sign your own death away for foolish male pride. Don't ask me to stay here and watch you die."  
  
Tears threatened both of them, and the stalemate lasted an eternal moment before K'Tahli fled the room in tears. 


	23. Ch 21 Donor

The interior of Talyn was quiet. Rainne was in her bed, napping. Crais had been up in command, but he could not stay away. He went into the chamber and sat down to watch Rainne. He never tired of looking at her. Even the smudges under her eyes from fatigue could not deter from his pleasure at looking. While he was up in command, Talyn had accessed Moya's databanks and explained to Crais about the differences in Rainne's physiology and why she had been so shocked at a normal question regarding paternity. There would be much to learn.  
  
Talyn hummed and beeped at Crais.  
  
"Yes, Talyn, I made some incorrect judgments. We are in an uncharted territory here, are we not?" Crais gave a small, self-depreciating chuckle.  
  
Rainne's eyelids fluttered open and she found Bialar sitting on the edge of the bed.  
  
"I am sorry I woke you."  
  
"I am not." Rainne responded honestly. He was smiling gently at her, with none of the earlier formality.  
  
"I owe you an apology. There are many things we do not know about one another that are hidden beneath deceptively similar exteriors. I reacted badly."  
  
"I wasn't exactly rational either."  
  
He smiled, and wisely withheld comment.  
  
"Talyn and I have had many conversations in our travels. We have learned much." Crais thought back to the day when he admitted to himself that Rainne was important to him, and being without her was not an option. He claimed racial purity be damned. He also thought back to Talyn asking him if his crossbreed status was unacceptable to Crais. Rainne watched the play of memories on his face.  
  
"C'thha, you are my life. Talyn gave me a bit of wisdom that was beyond any I could improve on, I would like to share it with you." He held her face cradled in both of his hands. The skin was warm and comforting. "He said to me that this child is like himself. It is the possibility and promise of combining the best of two worlds. He or she is our future." Talyn glowed and hummed in the background but gave the two of them their space.  
  
Rainne's eyes filled, but with joy this time. She could not speak. He leaned forward and kissed her with a feather light touch of his mouth on hers. The kiss begged forgiveness and she gave it, happily. He leaned her back on the bed and deepened the kiss. The acceptance and passion ignited Rainne and she pulled him closer. He laughed a deep rich sound at her ardor. Talyn dimmed the chamber lights and left them alone.  
  
  
  
Talyn woke them abruptly several arns later.  
  
"Yes Talyn?" Crais sat up, pulling his hair back and winding it quickly with the strap.  
  
"She's here? Now? Alone?" each word becoming a bit more incredulous. Talyn softly whistled a concerned affirmative. Talyn was not close to K'Tahli like he was to his Rainne, but she was family and treated as such.  
  
"Rainne." Crais gently shook her shoulder and spoke her name softly. "Wake up." She slowly opened her eyes. She noted Crais was pulling on his shirt and had secured his hair.  
  
"What's wrong?" Rainne asked, still trying to shake the lassitude of sleep.  
  
"That remains to be seen. " K'Tahli is here on Talyn and is requesting to see you. Talyn seems to believe she is very upset."  
  
Rainne got out of the bed quickly and pulled on her clothing.  
  
  
  
Both Rainne and Crais met her at the transport pod bay. She was dressed to travel, black flight pants and a black tank top. Her hair was braided hastily and was glinting a violent shade of indigo one wouldn't have noticed unless they knew to look. She was violently angry, but it was held in check by an iron-banded will. Her eyes, normally a warm, caramel shade of gold, looked flat and an eerie yellow.  
  
"K'Tahli?" Crais asked, carefully. She was unstable and primed for a fight, but the cause was still unknown.  
  
She looked at him, briefly, and then looked at Rainne.  
  
Addressing Rainne, she said, "I need to speak to you before I leave." She had dismissed Crais like he had not even spoken. She kept her eyes locked on Rainne. She could see Crais in her peripheral vision, and noted his confusion and reaction at her dismissal before he steeled his features.  
  
"K'Tahli, what is going on? You have never spoken to Bialar this way, nor looked at us this way. If he has done something to offend, you owe it to decency to tell us both."  
  
It was both the wrong and the right thing to say. Without actually relaxing her stance, some of the rigidity left K'Tahli.  
  
"You are correct. My apologies to you for my rudeness, Captain. I actually need Talyn."  
  
Crais recovered his composure more quickly than Rainne.  
  
"Certainly." Crais responded, without hesitation. "We will take you wherever you require."  
  
K'Tahli was shocked by his instant capitulation, no questions, no hesitation. His face was unmasked; his concern for her was blatant, simmering just below the exterior of his command presence. Why couldn't Ashan see this man before her? This man would not refuse her request. Ashan had forbidden her to ask him or Rainne about the graft. She would not break her vow, but Ashan never said anything about Talyn. She knew she was violating the spirit of his order. She was beyond caring about his pride. Her emotions were so raw her shielding was minimal; she probably could have asked Talyn right there in the hall without asking permission. However, unshielded communication with a leviathan as directly as she needed to do, could kill her.  
  
"I need to speak to Talyn, directly. I need Rainne to connect me. I cannot ask you because that would be breaking a vow to Ashan."  
  
Crais had just about had it with the cryptic referenced conversation. Although skilled in clever exchange and truth bending, he preferred direct truth. And the pain that this "vow" was causing K'Tahli was frustrating him. He advanced on K'Tahli and grabbed her shoulders. He wanted to shake her into making sense.  
  
"Listen to me, and listen well," Crais began, "Whatever is between Ashan and myself has no bearing on Rainne and Talyn and You. It can also have no bearing on you and me. I will go confront him about this.Vow.that is making you so unhappy." He nearly snapped the word "vow" like it was a vile, living enemy.  
  
"You can't. Please!" She put her hand up to his face, unable to hold her anger in the face of his kindness. "He is my husband, and despite his most stubborn stand on this issue, I live for him. For his complexities, his passions, even this misguided vow. You would not ask Rainne to defy you for me? Then I can't defy his wish, even for you." Her narrative had exhausted her, and she slumped a bit in the support of the grasp he still held on her shoulders.  
  
  
  
Behind them, Rainne watched stoically, her tears streaming down her face unnoticed. She took advantage of the concentration required to converse as they were. She slipped quietly into K'Tahli's mind. She was not surprised to find a myriad of psychic shields in place. Rainne could only discern that Ashan was injured, and K'Tahli was in search of a way to help him. Rainne probed a bit deeper, and K'Tahli felt the intrusion. She looked up at her and shook her head, no. Rainne understood she would not be allowed to find out this way either. She allowed the mental link to dissipate.  
  
  
  
"Talyn has agreed to speak to you." Crais announced. "Follow me to the neural cluster."  
  
"I thought I could link through Rainne?"  
  
"Then I could see your thoughts as well. Your only assured privacy is the cluster. If you ask Talyn to hold your secret, he will die with it."  
  
  
  
They were a quiet group as they headed for command. K'Tahli slowed as they neared.  
  
"I can't."  
  
"I beg your pardon?" Crais asked.  
  
"K'Tahli, you have been in there before. Your shielding holds. Talyn would never hurt you." Rainne said, reminding K'Tahli of her first day aboard Talyn.  
  
"I know that. But my shielding is now weaker. I could take on too much and accidentally kill myself. Talyn could be horribly damaged."  
  
They seemed to be at a stalemate.  
  
"Crais. Please ask Talyn to call back Denali, the surviving twin." K'Tahli requested.  
  
"Why? Where could he take you that we cannot?"  
  
"To a gammak base or a Sebacean planet to find." She paused and touched her fingertips to her forehead then her own lips. "Forgive me, Ashan." She whispered to herself.  
  
"To find what?" Crais asked.  
  
"To find a compatible donor for Ashan. He has damaged his paraphoral nerve. He will die in the next 2 solar days if I cannot locate a donor. I am not wanted by the Peacekeepers so I can travel freely with Denali."  
  
Rainne looked confused. She looked over at Crais and was even more perplexed by his expression.  
  
Crais' expression was one of deep pain, and he was struggling to mask it.  
  
"You were not supposed to tell me." Crais said to K'Tahli.  
  
"I was not supposed to ask you to be tested, nor consider the graft."  
  
She hung her head, her broken vow to her husband like shards of spun glass inside her.  
  
"He said you had made your choice and he would not hurt you by asking you to do this. It would be forcing you to make an admission that could cause you pain." Her voice finally broke and she sagged against the wall. She began backing away, toward the transport hangar. "I will wait for Denali in the hangar."  
  
"Wait!" Crais called after her. He had grasped Rainne's hand for support in an uncharacteristic show of need in public, but it was K'Tahli that he addressed.  
  
"No!" Her pain was unbearable and she could barely speak. "Please, Bialar, I kept my vow. I did not ask you. I can see Ashan was right, this causes you pain. I am terribly, terribly sorry for that. I see now that I was selfish to come here." she fled toward the hangar. Crais masked his own pain and explained to Rainne about the Sebacean Paraphoral nerve.  
  
  
  
On Moya  
  
Ashan sat in the common room, trying, unsuccessfully, to eat. John and Aeryn were trying to keep him company.  
  
"Why can't we hook up Moya to him like we did you?" John asked Aeryn.  
  
"Moya's metabolism would filter out the substances in my system that allows me to heal others. The type of healing that I do is rare; it is as much a function of my being as it is my studies. I would be lost without them, incomplete."  
  
"Yeah, sure, but you'd be alive."  
  
"Barely. "  
  
"So what if you can't single-handedly kick the Mummy?"  
  
"Crichton, what if your life saving measure offered you a chance at life without being able to fly, compute scientific theory, or make jokes?" Ashan countered.  
  
"In that order?" John shot back at him.  
  
Ashan just raised his eyebrows. He had made his point. His healing was much of who he was. Just like John squarely looked life in the eye and made fun of it was part of who he was.  
  
"What about the cryopod we still have that we got from Grunchlk?"  
  
"Does anyone know how to operate it?" Aeryn asked.  
  
"We could try to figure it out. If we could get you into stasis then we'd have more time to find a donor. Or devise a new way to fix this nerve thing. You guys give Achilles a run for his money."  
  
"Was he a healer? Aeryn asked.  
  
"Achilles healer?" John laughed aloud. She had no idea the funny she just made.  
  
At John's great whoop of laughter, Jool huffed and got up from her meal. She left with John still giggling. His laughter was contagious, and soon everyone was smiling. The laughter felt wonderful after the events of the battle.  
  
"Let's go take a look-see at this Cryopod." The trio rose to leave. Ashan, feeling introspective marveled at these newfound friends. The easy camaraderie was unexpected and comforting. He missed K'Tahli though. He understood why she ran off, and Moya had assured him she had run no further than Talyn. He hoped if no solution was found in time to save him, that Crais would at least accept K'Tahli, help her mourn and protect her in his absence.  
  
"Hey, get that look off your face. The 'woe is me' look clashes with your hieroglyphics. You saved my ass from being the colonel's extra crispy, I am not about to let you croak without a fight."  
  
  
  
On Talyn  
  
K'Tahli sat cross-legged on the floor of the hangar, trying to sense Denali's arrival. She knew she was directly in the middle of an emotional reaction to run away. She was ill equipped and unprepared to think about her life without Ashan.  
  
She could sense Talyn, through the wall she rested against. She leaned her head back and let the soothing sounds wash over her.  
  
"I know I can't speak to you as directly as Rainne and Crais. I am sorry I felt afraid to directly connect. Please know it is my weakness, not yours. You have been an ally and a friend from the beginning. For a being so young, you have found a deep understanding that belies your years." Talyn's sounds softened, urged her on.  
  
"I can't leave, can I Talyn? I have to go back to Moya, to Ashan. Would you want Crais to flee from you to hide from the pain if you were dying?" K'Tahli laughed. "As that is not a possibility.Crais runs from nothing, right?" Talyn made a noise that was truly quizzical.  
  
"Well, yes, he is running from admitting he has another brother, with all of the joy and the pain that goes with the bond of loving a flawed being. But I am doing the same thing right now." Her breathing hitched and she squeezed her eyes shut tight to lock in the threatening tears.  
  
"Talyn. Please call Moya. The time for tears will be later. I need to be by his side. Thank you so for listening. I think you can understand me, even if I can't fully understand you."  
  
Talyn contacted Moya.  
  
"Ah, but you understand me well, little sister." Talyn said, mostly to himself. He had an idea he needed to pose to Rainne.  
  
On Moya "Looks ok." John was scratching his head, staring at the Cryopod.  
  
"We would have to test it. How can we do that?" Ashan asked.  
  
"Too bad Rygel's gone. No spare hynerians in your pocket?" John quipped  
  
They looked at one another, unsure of how to proceed.  
  
"You could test me." Ashan spun around at K'Tahli's voice. He ran the few steps across the corridor and picked her up in a crushing embrace.  
  
"You returned." he sounded as if he could not believe what his own eyes were telling him.  
  
"I was selfish. I needed to run, I needed to escape the pain and I wanted to scream at someone, punch someone. I couldn't scream at you, it's not your fault."  
  
"I know, I know." He was searching her face, scanning her features as if trying to lock them in eternal memory.  
  
"So I went to Talyn."  
  
"Moya told me."  
  
K'Tahli cast her eyes down for a moment, but Ashan put his hand under her chin and raised her eyes to meet his.  
  
"Your vow?" He asked solemnly.  
  
"I went over there with every intention of keeping it. And I did. I did not ask him. But I did tell him you were injured in the paraphoral nerve. "  
  
"You know that is the same as asking him!" Ashan was angry.  
  
"YES!" She shouted back at him, "But you would have done the same if it were me. If it means anything, I am very sorry; I saw what it did to him. You were right about the hurt, I didn't realize."  
  
He wanted to shake her for her defiance, but she was right. He'd break any vow to save her. They had been together since infancy, and their marriage was almost symbiotic.  
  
"You are right, K'Tahli. I would have done the same. Please, no matter what happens, don't leave me again.until."  
  
"Whoa! Remember what I said about that 'woe is me" stuff?" John chimed in. Attitude was key to recovery in humans; he was hoping like crazy that it was the same in Sebaceans. K'Tahli and Ashan both looked at him and smiled.  
  
"I meant what I said, Ashan. Test me." K'Tahli reiterated.  
  
"What if it is not functioning properly?"  
  
"You can still heal me, right?"  
  
A look of hope crossed Aeryn and John's faces.  
  
"I don't know for sure. I have never tried to heal when I was compromised. It's too big a risk."  
  
"What about a plant? Would the cellular damage be similar enough to tell us if it is intact?"  
  
"Perhaps.again the risk outweighs the benefits."  
  
"Maybe we can test Crais?" This from John. All eyes glared at him. "Hey, some habits die hard. He wanted to cash in my warranty card pretty badly not too long ago."  
  
The mention of Crais silenced the group, and had left them alone with their thoughts.  
  
As if the mention had made him appear, pilot's voice came over the comm.  
  
"Captain Crais would like permission to board Moya." 


	24. Ch 22 Acceptance Begins

On Talyn, an Arn earlier Crais had needed a little time alone to think after K'Tahli had left. He went to the exercise area he had fashioned on Talyn. The repetitive motion of weight training often affording him time to think, and kept him strong. He lifted a set of weights and began a series of arm curls and flexes. As the rhythm of the motion began, he started thinking about his baby. His thoughts drifted to fatherhood, and all of the opportunities it afforded him. His life had once been happy, as a child himself. The Peacekeepers did not give the conscriptee's the option of homesickness, nor unhappiness. He learned to squelch those very quickly. Tauvo had clung to him, and they weathered the training together. He closed his eyes and let his brother's loss wash over him. That pain would never leave him, but it would fade. He could not keep his thoughts from venturing to Ashan. If it were true, it would explain the affinity Crais felt toward K'Tahli, the brotherly affection. Rainne seemed to have the same bond with Ashan. The surge of possessiveness made him increase the weights and launch into a more rigorous routine. He was not ready to examine this further. He concentrated on the exercise and let the exertion wipe the thoughts from his mind.  
  
  
  
"Rainne?" Talyn called to her.  
  
"Yes Talyn?" she answered. She had been trying to rest, and trying to figure out how to approach Crais with the notion of the graft. She was as torn by the hurt she saw on Crais' face and being part of saving a life.  
  
"I have an idea."  
  
"An idea? About what?" She asked him. He sounded excited, like a child who had figured out a puzzle and wanted to share it. At her inquiry, Talyn explained his plan. Rainne agreed with Talyn, it was their best shot. Rainne got up and went in search of Crais.  
  
She found him coming out of the quarters they shared, freshly cleaned up from his workout, gloves in hand.  
  
"I thought you said you were going to nap? Are you feeling all right? Is the baby giving you pain?" Rainne smiled at him.  
  
"No, no the baby is fine. I wanted to talk to you." Rainne took the gloves from his hands and walked back into their chamber and sat down on the chair. She motioned for him to sit with her.  
  
"Bialar. I need to ask you a favor. I am under no one's vow not to ask you this." He stiffened and sat back a bit when she said that. She had his hands in hers so he could not withdraw completely.  
  
"I could not begin to understand the suffering that Ashan's claim places on you. I won't even try. But I am not asking you to rush into accepting him as your brother." Crais visibly flinched at the word brother. "But for me, for your child, please allow this graft."  
  
"What makes you bring the child into this?" He asked, now clearly torn. He could not deny Rainne her request; he would fall on his own blade if she but ask.  
  
"Watch this."  
  
At her words, she went over and put in the vid chip Talyn had made for her. It began when the container had slammed into Rainne and sent her sprawling to the floor. Crais had nearly leapt from his seat watching her be hurt. She lay there, still as death for several moments before Ashan found her and hurried to her side.  
  
She watched Crais' face as he heard and watched.  
  
  
  
"Shh. Relax Rainne. Let me see where you are injured."  
  
She winced when Ashan pressed a tender spot on her ribs. His fingers gently traveled her midsection, assessing damage. For Ashan it was a slow journey, he had never touched or tried to heal a human before.  
  
"Ow!" She could not help but cry out. His hands stopped over the cracked ribs. Closing his eyes, he called on all of his training. He wished for K'Tahli's amplification, but she needed to go get Crais. The name caused his concentration to falter, briefly. His need to heal this woman overrode any concerns Ashan may have with his brother right now. He could feel the bones begin to knit beneath his hands. Rainne heard the humming sounds in her mind.  
  
Ashan continued his examination. He found no other internal injuries, some light bruising he soothed. His fingertips tingled, and his eyes went wide. He splayed his fingers over her lower abdomen.  
  
"Rainne, give me your hand." He said through his concentration. "Put your hand on mine. I am going to draw from you." He seemed a little frantic, but she complied. She knew now why there was an instant rapport between Bialar and K'Tahli. It existed here with Ashan. She looked down at their hands. Her hand began its familiar glow, but somehow the light was softer, it pulsed. It echoed her heartbeat. She noticed Ashan's hand seemed to have a tiny, fragile light. As her light pulsed, the faint light under her hand brightened, and began to pulse very quickly. Ashan's face broke into a relieved grin and he let out the breath he did not realize he was holding.  
  
"What was that?" Rainne whispered, although she did not dare hope.  
  
"Your first communication with your unborn child." Ashan smiled gently down to her.  
  
"You saved its life?"  
  
"No, sweet sister." He kissed her forehead, "You did. I just knew where to direct healing. You healed the child yourself." Rainne squeezed her eyes closed. Emotions washed over her relentless and powerful as tides. She curled her body, reflexively shielding the precious life she and Bialar had created. The life that could have blinked out before she knew it was there.  
  
  
  
Talyn had zoomed his watching close to the hands and the last image on the vid screen was on the two hands, one small and injured, the other larger, stronger.  
  
Crais was still as a statue. His heart was pounding more than when it had working with weights. He felt if he moved or spoke he would disintegrate, or simply cease to exist.  
  
Rainne watched him during the vid chip. Talyn had played it for her when he explained his plan. She knew the images were intensely powerful.  
  
"Beloved, Please. For me." Rainne whispered.  
  
"And me." Talyn echoed.  
  
Crais looked up sharply.  
  
"For our son. I can tell you now that the child is a son."  
  
Crais took her face in his hands, stared into the clear green eyes that looked at him like none ever had before. He bent forward and touched his lips to hers, just a whisper of contact.  
  
"Yes." 


	25. Ch 23 The Graft

On Moya "Permission? Is he in a really big hollow horse? Bearing gifts?" John asked in response to pilot's query.  
  
"No, Crais and Rainne are here to see Ashan and K'Tahli." Pilot responded.  
  
Ashan's heart ached for the hope that flared in K'Tahli's face.  
  
"I guess there are a lot of folks in hell strapping on ice skates."  
  
Aeryn glared at John.  
  
"Pilot, could you escort Crais and Rainne to the med station? We will meet them there."  
  
"Assuming a lot aren't you?" John asked Aeryn.  
  
"No. Regardless of Crais' business here, I would like to see Ashan at medical so we can monitor his condition as Moya continues to search databases for compatible donors on out-world planets."  
  
The look John gave her told her he did not believe her.  
  
K'Tahli held tight to Ashan's hand as they traveled the corridors.  
  
  
  
They entered the med station. Rainne's face was tear stained but radiant. K'Tahli was thrilled to see her expression, but kept her features impassive.  
  
"Aeryn Sun." Crais addressed her in a cool, clipped tone. "Prepare the donor graft of my paraphoral nerve tissues." He said nothing else, but strode to the med table, shrugged his jacket off and sat down. He handed his jacket to Rainne.  
  
"Crais you old softie." John teased. Crais silenced him with a glare. John opted to discontinue his comments.  
  
No one else spoke. The emotion in the room was palpable. Ashan wordlessly sat on the other table. Crais purposefully avoided Ashan's gaze. Ashan respected his unspoken wish, and did not push for contact. Rainne started crying again, deep, silent tears running down her face. She went to Crais' side, stood by him. His control was tenuous, so she did not touch him. She was there, he knew. That was enough for now.  
  
K'Tahli had gone to the gurney with Ashan. He was pale, stoic. She gripped his hand as Aeryn prepared the injection. She extracted the necessary graft material from Crais and told him to stay seated for a few moments while his body concentrated its efforts at replacing the cells she harvested.  
  
It seemed the room collectively held their breath when she injected Ashan.  
  
"It is done." Aeryn crisply announced. She gathered up the instruments and prepared to leave. She looked down at Crais. Her smile reflected the pride and thanks. No words were necessary. She and John left the room.  
  
K'Tahli had thrown her arms around Ashan and she was holding him so tightly the muscles in her entire body were shaking. Crais had closed his eyes and tipped his head back.  
  
Rainne stroked his cheek and he opened his eyes and looked at her. She put his hand on her stomach and leaned close to his ear.  
  
"We thank you." She whispered for his ears only.  
  
He looked at her. His gaze was smoky with emotion. There was a powerful feeling that washed over him at giving of himself. Bolstered by the expression of total devotion on Rainne's face, he turned to look at K'Tahli and Ashan.  
  
"I will never forget Tauvo." He began, never taking his eyes from Ashan. "Our bond was more than blood." His voice was unsteady, so he paused to collect himself.  
  
"But you saved my son from death before I even knew he existed. I owed you a life. I have repaid that life." Rainne smiled over at K'Tahli as Crais was speaking.  
  
Crais stood, facing Ashan.  
  
"But my Rainne has shown me that you are not asking me to forget my brother, but to know you. Ashan Crais Ferrian, I would like that chance."  
  
When Crais had begun to speak, Ashan had been certain he was telling him that he allowed the graft just because of the child. He was stunned by Crais' offer of friendship. He stood.  
  
"I once accused you of being a killer, and claimed that was unforgivable. My wife pointed out that when I sought vengeance for the death of our community, I was prepared to kill as well. People can change, I know this now. I welcome the opportunity to know you as well. I thank you for my life."  
  
Ashan and Crais stared at one another, sizing up the sincerity of the other. Their lives had changed, their paths reconnected. It would take some time for both to be fully comfortable with this new relationship. Reaching across the chasm that once was unbridgeable, Ashan and Crais embraced. It was a beginning.  
  
  
  
Thus ends "What's in a name." 


End file.
